If you are serious about recovery, join us

The Cork Foundation is the first of its kind in Ireland and will assist in the economic growth and social development of the Cork region.

The sole objective of the foundation is to support the creation and maintenance of sustainable jobs in the Cork region.

Regrettably, Cork is no different to the rest of Ireland and, indeed, many parts of the world — it desperately needs jobs. Cork cannot be selective, Cork needs every type of job that can be created.

The days of dreaming of living in the imaginary smart economy or in the mirage of the Celtic Tiger are long over. We live in a real world.

Many words are spoken about the need to create jobs but not nearly enough is done to create those jobs. The foundation will be part of the doing — not the talking — in helping to create and sustain those jobs.

The foundation is a positive initiative by public representatives and the business community in the Cork region.

The foundation is calling on Cork people at home and abroad to come together to help lead the Cork region into a new era of sustained employment, prosperity, and in making the creation of jobs, Cork’s number one priority — yes, an even bigger priority than winning another All-Ireland hurling title.

While I fully accept that we in Ireland have been through an incredibly traumatic time over the last few years, today, we have a choice.

Do we want to continue to live in the past, complain about the present and despair about the future? I, for one, do not. I want to embrace and live in the future.

The world economy and the Irish economy are in a far better place than they were this time last year.

Be in no doubt, our economy, and world economies, are not just stabilising they are healing and improving.

Throughout history, world economies have been in a state of perpetual change and turmoil. Unpleasant for most but the land of opportunity for the few. This change and turmoil opens up a whole world of opportunity for those who want to reach out to tomorrow and live in it.

The foundation is about the future and giving support and opportunity to those with compelling visions of the future and who can create and maintain the jobs of the future.

Despite the financial carnage of the last five years, there are still many successful businesses and business people in Cork and among the Cork diaspora in Ireland and across the world.

The foundation needs support, either financially or otherwise, to help achieve Cork’s number one objective — to create and sustain jobs and get our unemployed and young into work.

Job creation has its own positive multiplier factor. For every manufacturing job created in Cork, that job creates another 2.5 indirect jobs. Every service job created in Cork, creates another 0.7 of a job. When the job creation engine starts, it turbo-charges with enormous effect.

You can contribute financially towards the €5m fundraising target. During the year of Cork 800, many of you supported Cork. You can do the same by putting the Cork Foundation website address on your business stationery or link it to your websites.

Help in spreading the foundation’s sole objective, which is to raise €5m to create and maintain jobs in the Cork region.

The foundation is not a competitor or replacement for banks, they must play their role in supporting businesses.

The foundation will complement existing enterprise support providers and is there to offer and provide repayable funding to those who can create and sustain jobs in the Cork region.

A prosperous Cork region must ensure that it is better than any other part of Ireland at creating and sustaining jobs. This can only be done by imagination, a willingness to embrace tomorrow, combined with sustained and relentless hard work.

In the words of the late Robert Kennedy: “The future is not a gift — it is an achievement.”

Let us hope that with the launch of the Cork Foundation, it will play its part in Cork’s future and in the achievement of Cork’s number one priority: Jobs, jobs, jobs.

Sean O’Driscoll is chairman and CEO of Glen Dimplex and chairman of the Cork Foundation Strategic Advisory Board. This is an edited version of his speech at the foundation’s launch