Covid-19 has heightened community spirit in a vibrant Kinsale, says Cormac Fitzgerald of accountants Fitzgerald & Partners

It is great to see Kinsale starting to recover and reopen for business in a safe way and we wish every success to everybody in the challenges that lie ahead. I think there is very much a culture of shop local, support local, buy Irish and a great sense of community spirit which is very important in times like this. 

People are adapting to the change and businesses are adapting quickly. The improvements to the town are very welcome and the clean, safe and vibrant town is now buzzing with staycation tourism. 

However, while there are some positives in the July stimulus these are  not strong enough to stabilise the SME sector. SMEs need quick access to grants to help them to survive and more is needed in this regard.

Having worked with hundreds of businesses in the last few months, it has struck me the great resilience of business owners and how they can adapt to change and innovate quickly. SMEs have used the time to refit and make safe their places of business, adhering to the health and safety guidelines, and the town has always had a reputation for being safe and clean thanks to all stakeholders. 

We have a lot of enquiries for people looking to relocate to the area and buy a property here in last few weeks as an alternative to city living and Kinsale has always been a great location to live and work.

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Everyone is trying their best and doing their bit. Resilience is learned from setbacks. Some new businesses have opened, which is refreshing to see. For the SME sector to recover and stabilise more supports are needed in 2020/21, and we here have put forward our recommendations to government in our Doing Business in Kinsale community survey.

The eat-on-the-street programme is a positive solution by Cork County Council and is helping towns. People got to enjoy walking and cycling on car free streets in the pandemic and to the single way traffic system. While it is seasonal it is a big help. 

A free two-hour parking system is now under way and very welcome — it could also perhaps be extended for the next twelve months to help in the recovery of the town in terms of tourism, with perhaps an upgrade in the public toilet facilities now essential for day trippers.

It is great to see the youth in Kinsale, up and coming entrepreneurs looking at new ideas and making the next generation of creators, but also the sporting success of many the town in different areas of sport — and indeed other areas. Sports complexes and large halls like Saile are also vital — having large spaces available in winter so activities can happen in a safe way and socially distant.

The SME sector could take probably 12 to 18 months to recover and it is good that the supports and agencies are working with businesses to help to support them through this, including the rates, restart grants and other supports such as TWSS. We are working daily with SMEs in a business advisory capacity to help them access supports and liquidity to survive.

From liaising with various business leaders and stakeholders the key issues in this recovery phase seem to be :

Uncertainty: It is going to take time to get back to recovery and nobody, I guess, knows how the next 12 months are going to pan out. It is hard to plan and there are risks ahead in both health and economic terms.

Bravery: It is incredible the good work that has been done by the multi-agency approach of frontline emergency personnel and the HSE.

Leadership: We have seen examples of some incredible leadership in both public and private sectors, with really good leaders and CEOs stepping up to the plate. We act for lots of business leaders and the true leaders perform under pressure.

Change: There are huge business and social changes that will have medium and long term impacts. Only a minority of businesses have been unaffected in this crisis. We have already worked with lots of SMEs in restructuring their business to adapt, and we have moved to digital in our processes with our team now digitally enabled to help SMEs.

Technology: While technology has played a very important role and been very useful during the pandemic, Zoom and Skype meetings have been methods of keeping communication going. Some feel that now a more blended approach will be needed, as better business can be done with safer human interaction. While our niche area is business advisory we have helped firms to transition to cloud accounting, cybersecurity and make them digitally enabled. We are adding new services to our firm in 2021.

The pandemic has been difficult for everybody in all different ways and also demonstrated how important the SME sector is as the engine of our economy, the lifeblood of a town like Kinsale. Hopefully, some further stimulus packages and supports will be put in place to keep entrepreneurs and SMEs going.

At Fitzgerald & Partners, we welcome the superb Kinsale Chamber of Tourism & Business marketing campaign — all initiatives are needed in terms of helping the growth and recovery of the town. FDI and multinationals are also important and it’s been great to have a large employer such as Lilly here supporting the local community. We have also seen a demand for our Kinsale Digital Hub as a safe co-working flexible option in the town centre.

Each can help by sharing a positive review of local enterprises, subscribing to their newsletters, and giving a step up to businesses trying their best to get going again. We need to encourage entrepreneurs to keep going and creating new ideas and businesses and jobs to be part of the recovery.

• Cormac Fitzgerald (pictured) is managing director of Fitzgerald & Partners Accountants