The Elio Business Podcast: Ep 4 The Urban Rural Divide

Joe Lynam is joined by Katie flood, EY Ireland Partner and Head of Strategy and Transformation and David Rusell, CEO Elio Networks and they discuss if there is an urban rural divide when it comes to business, they ask if the economy is lopsided and agree while this is the case – there is good work being done to change it. They discuss what International investors could be looking for when considering investing in regional areas. Katie also talks about the other avenues available to help people build skills that would help support the skills needed by a multinational employer.

They also discussed how lockdowns may have been a positive for regional and rural areas but how we still need to continue to develop rural hubs. How a lot of people may just be attracted to cities for work and the lack of public transport and issues around planning permission as a barrier to rural working and development were also covered, as was the difficulty getting homes in bigger cities like Dublin and Cork. Finally they talked about importance of improving not just transport, planning and housing issues but how vital connectivity is if we can move more business outside of urban areas and promote regional growth.