The regular stakeholders’ meetings in Ireland support at the local and regional level the overall aim of SME POWER to ensure that public policy for the low carbon economy is better adapted to the needs of non-energy intensive SMEs, thus enabling them to be a key driver in the low carbon shift at European Level.
Hosted by WestBIC, attendees at the sixth SME POWER Irish Stakeholders’ Meeting included John Flynn and David Boyle (Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland); Alma Gallagher and Barry Lowe (Clár ICH); Seamus McCormack and Niamh Considine (WestBIC).
Seamus McCormack of WestBIC opened the meeting with a comprehensive update on the SME POWER Steering Committee Meeting, which took place in León, Spain on the 15th of June. Feedback from the stakeholders who attended the first in-person event in two year was that it was interesting to see how the “one-stop shop” concept of providing SMEs with support is rolling out across Europe and not just in Ireland. Networking opportunities in León were very beneficial to the project team. Further, updates were provided in respect to the regional Action Plan implementation SEAI has undertaken in association with Clár ICH, including the pilot event to reach out to SMEs to ensure they are committed to more regional events for duration of project. The learnings from the pilot to be adopted for future events in particular the emphasis on support of local intermediaries, engagement with local radio and incentives such as free energy audits. It was agreed that the regional stakeholder group meeting was an extremely useful forum for discussions on what was happening at ground level in relation to the project, and that the regular meetings should continue during the next phase of SME POWER. Therefore, the Irish stakeholders and partners will continue to host two additional regional stakeholder meetings in next semester (August 2022 – January 2023).
For further information:
Contact Seamus McCormack, WestBIC or follow the project on social media: @sme_power
