Galway, the gateway to opportunity

Improved infrastructure, buoyant tourism numbers and the winning of key accolades put the county in position to optimise its growth, writes Caroline Allen

The Mayor of Galway, Cllr Noel Larkin with Barry Egan and Burga Fullam of Enterprise Ireland Galway, who welcomed a group of 19 international entrepreneurs from 12 countries to Galway in June. They came to pitch for 10 Competitive Start Fund investments of 50,000 to establish their business in Ireland. Enterprise Ireland is actively promoting Ireland as a location to entrepreneurs to come and start their start-up here.

With a new motorway under construction, growing tourist numbers and selection as European Region of Gastronomy 2018, as well as European Capital of Culture 2020, Galway is looking to the future with confidence, according to Kevin Kelly, chief executive of Galway County Council.

Kelly said the new motorway, which forms part of the Atlantic road corridor, will open for traffic in 2018. Consisting of 57km of dual carriageway from Gort to Tuam, it ...