Ireland innovation. Image: Per Bengtsson/Shutterstock
The Dingle Hub and Hatch Labs in Gorey promise to boost regional entrepreneurial talent, with all the tools needed to start up a business.
This has been a busy week for Ireland’s innovation hubs, with an increased regional footprint the order of the day.
In Kerry, the newly opened Dingle Hub plans to support the creation of 100 jobs in the coming years, focusing on the areas of music, film, animation and the internet of things.
Supported by Eir, Dingle Business Chamber, Údarás na Gaeltachta, Kerry County Council and Net Feasa, the Dingle Hub’s access to high-quality connectivity brings new opportunities to the region.
Eir’s role is to provide the likes of 1GB broadband, hosted voice services and Wi-Fi, with this connectivity hoped to be a “game-changer for Dingle”, according to the organisers.
Jim Garvey, spokesperson for the new hub, sais that a whole new generation of Dingle entrepreneurs will have access to something that was impossible in previous years.
“Dingle will continue to be a vibrant place in which to live and, though remote physically, it is now fully connected to the world beyond, so there is no limitation to the type of work that can be carried out in such a beautiful surrounding that inspires creativity and draws deeply from the local traditions and culture,” he said.
Earlier today, it emerged that Kerry is also becoming a bit of an innovation hotspot for entrepreneurs.
Housing 18 businesses and employing 50 people on site (with that number expected to double this summer), HQTralee is a force to be reckoned with.
Among the myriad of innovation hubs throughout Ireland, HQTralee has landed Vodafone and Siro’s two years of free 1GB fibre broadband.
It’s the first of several awards of such free connectivity, with Tralee preceding Drogheda, Dundalk, Letterkenny, Cavan and Carlow in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, on in the south-east of the country, Gorey’s Hatch Labs was finally opened this week. Wexford County Council lauded Bank of Ireland (BOI) for its role in the creation of Hatch Labs, with David Tighe, head of innovation at BOI, one of the people opening the facility.
At Hatch Lab, Gorey launch – Startup working space, David Tighe -Head of Innovation @bankofireland welcomes @wexfordcoco partnership model pic.twitter.com/LGJx1Gh261
— Pat ? (@PatCarrollTouch) April 25, 2017
Hatch Labs will offer business supports and services within a 5,000 sq ft open plan co-working space, similar to that already found in existing tech hubs in Dublin and elsewhere around Ireland.
