We at Murphy Environmental were all hugely proud of our General Manager, Patricia Rooney, on being elected the Drogheda & District Chamber President.
Patricia is only the second woman ever to hold the title of President of the Chamber of Commerce.
Driving forward
a new tourism vision for the town and encouraging new entrepreneurs are
just some of the ambitions Patricia Rooney would like to see achieved
by the organisation.
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Speaking
to the Drogheda Independent in August 2008, Patricia acknowledged the
challenges ahead for businesses in the town, and added: 'Although I'm
not deluded, I do feel you must take the positive from every situation
and the current climate gives us a great opportunity to sell to every
business in the town the fact that being with the chamber is a positive
thing. 'We
are firmly of the belief that when you work together you have a louder
stronger voice.
She is also
looking forward to the year ahead and her role in helping move business
forward and encourage new enterprise. 'I'm
absolutely thrilled to take on the role,' she said. 'l genuinely do believe
it is an honour, especially for a town the size of Drogheda and the calibre
of the committee members in the chamber.
'We have
big ambitions for the town and we are hoping to gather momentum from the
Indecon report, the Oireachtas Committee representation and we are also
working with a number of the councillors to drive forward a plan and a
vision for Drogheda.'
This includes
developing a strong tourism strategy for the area as a whole to encourage
people not just to visit for a day but to use Drogheda as a base to see
the north east.
'We have
a very strong and active sub-committee in the chamber who are trying to
drive forward this Valley of the Kings Strategy for Drogheda,' said Ms
Rooney.
At the moment,
people are coming on a day trip, usually from Dublin, to visit the heritage
sites in the area and then going back to the capital. 'We want them to
stay in the area and we are promoting a joint package with Meath, Trim
and Dundalk so that the tourism euro stays in Drogheda and obviously the
knock on effect of that benefits everyone.'
The chamber
also has plans to put a strategy together to welcome new members to the
fold and Ms Rooney pointed out many businesses don't join because they
have misconceptions about what the chamber is about. 'People think that
you have to be invited to join, or that you have to have a certain number
of employees or be a certain age, none of which is true,' she said.
'You simply have to be involved in an enterprise and the membership fee
is tailored to each individual organisation so that small companies won't
be penalised.'