Chamber of Commerce announces 'Discover Lisnaskea' project

Rodney Edwards • Published 4 Mar 2010 14:23 0 Comments

Share this

Attending the Lisnaskea Chamber of Commerce Business Breakfast are (from left) Alan McDonald, Northern Bank; David Rees, principal Lisnaskea High School; Arlene Foster MLA, Minister for Enterprise Trade & Investment and the Rev. Alan Capper, Church of Ireland rector, Lisnaskea.

A grant of £10,000 has been secured from Waterways Ireland and other public bodies for the 'Discover Lisnaskea' project.

The initiative seeks to promote the town around the world in time for its annual festival, which this year, will take place on June 18, 19 and 20.

Thanks to Fermanagh District Council and Fermanagh Lakeland Tourism, Waterways Ireland readily stumped up the cash.

Speaking yesterday morning at a business breakfast organised by Lisnaskea's Chamber of Commerce, Glenn Charles revealed the exciting plans.

"We have been given a significant grant from Waterways Ireland thanks to the Council. The Council saw the potential, the work that we did and thought it would be a good idea to build on it, pointing Waterways Ireland in our direction. As well as our festival we are also having a Taste Fest which is all part of Discover Lisnaskea. Loads of food businesses have signed up but we want all businesses to get in touch. This is your chance to sell your product to the people of Lisnaskea, the people of Fermanagh, or wider. There's a huge marketing campaign that comes with this, they spend thousands on marketing the town across Europe, Ireland and the United Kingdom. It's for the good of your town and your business, so get in touch," he said.

The guest speaker at the breakfast was Trade and Industry Minister and MLA Arlene Foster,who is from Lisnaskea. The Minister said it was "great pleasure" to be invited to speak about a number of topics relating to the future of business in the town.

Referring to the economy, Mrs. Foster admitted it's been a "tough" time for businesses here: "When we set up the programme for government after the devolution in 2007, the economy was very much the key priority and we wanted to push it on. Little did we know then that we were going to face a worldwide recession some 12 months later. I do know businesses feel pressure at the moment. There's a lot of demand on their finances. Sometimes there's a lot of bureaucracy and we get the blame for that, obviously, but we're trying to help through Invest NI and the Accelerated Support Fund and the Short Term Aid Scheme. We're also dealing with the rates issue and we're also trying to find out from the banks what money is available," she said.

The Minister added: "Coming from County Fermanagh, the economy of Northern Ireland is also very much about growing our own local businesses. I also have to mention the food services sector. It is the only sector in Northern Ireland that has its own separate division in Invest Northern Ireland. The reason for that is because it's so important. We have so many great food companies in Lisnaskea and those companies are going from strength to strength, and we will continue to support them," she said.

In her speech Mrs. Foster also praised the work of the local community in outlining, very clearly, their vision for the future of their town.

"I know the local community and tourism group have been working closely with the Council and I want to commend them for the work they are doing; be it in relation to the Lough Head and the plans for development that there is there. Or indeed the plans to refurbish the all-important shop fronts. And when I say shop fronts, I've been to areas of Belfast that are very, very run down. And the business there do the very simple thing of having their shop fronts upgraded. It really has helped and I really hope we can find the money to do that here, because it really does make a difference to how a town looks," she said.

In closing, the Minister said it was "a great regret" that there weren't more Chambers of Commerce in Fermanagh that are doing the work that is done in Lisnaskea.

She added: "I was looking last night at the motto of the Chamber here in Lisnaskea. There's a plaque in my house from my late father-in-law from when he was president back in 1980. Of course the motto is 'live and let live', so I thought we could add an additional line: "Much done, much still to do," she said.

Afterwards, current president of Lisnaskea's Chamber of Commerce, Alma Kinnear said she was delighted with the success of the event: "I think the breakfast was absolutely amazing. We didn't think it was going to be such a success but as soon as we sent out the invitations the phones didn't stop ringing. We're really delighted and very proud that we have a very good, ordinary, working class community willing to help everyone out. And we are delighted that Arlene was able to attend. We are very proud that she's in Stormont representing our wee place all the way down here in Lisnaskea," she said.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 04 Mar 10

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our News archives.