City Centre Bid

Business Improvement Districts for Ireland's Towns & Cities

Leaders from Ireland's business community and local authorities gathered today (Tuesday 14^th February) to discuss the introduction of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) into Ireland to improve the main streets of towns and cities around the country.  

BIDs is a Public Private Partnership arrangement between a local authority and local businesses that provide a framework for businesses to voluntarily employ complementary services to improve the trading environment in the BID area and their trading performance. The workshop on BIDs, held in Bank of Ireland Arts Centre, was attended by international BIDs experts from the US and Canada who discussed benefits and logistics of establishing BIDs in Ireland. 

According to Minister for Environment, Heritage & Local Government, Dick Roche TD, "BIDs will provide a whole new impetus for businesses to work with local authorities and local residents around the country to help improve the areas in which they trade. We welcome the foresight of the business community in pursuing BIDs which will provide complementary (not substitute) street services. Collectively we will distinguish our towns and cities in this increasingly competitive global environment."

 Participation in BIDs is voluntary - businesses in the local area take a vote and if passed then all contribute towards the new services. This ensures that all those who benefit from the BIDs activities contributes. BIDs services initially focus on 'Clean, Green & Safe' activities such as street environmental enhancement (street cleaning, removal of graffiti, litter removal etc), street landscaping and graduate to promotional and capital investment activities including  marketing, street security, shop-front design, local community initiatives, introduction of amenities, etc.

According to the Chairman of the Dublin City Business Association "There are ever increasing demands placed on the resources of local authorities and they are stretched in providing the services required to meet the needs of an ever increasingly sophisticated population. As business people looking to increase our bottom line all the time we have to be realistic. We work and live in an increasingly competitive environment and we have to differentiate ourselves and raise our standards in order to remain competitive and successful. We believe that introducing BIDs is the way forward." 

The Business Improvement District workshop was jointly hosted by Dublin City Business Association and Dublin City Council. The Dublin City Business Association is the representative organisation for city centre retailers, property owners and transport organisations. Collectively its members employ 25,000 and contribute in excess of €400 million annually to the Exchequer.