The long-awaited appointment of a Sea Sessions’ Ray O’Donoghue appointed Night-Time Economy Advisor for Dublin City aka Night Mayor for Dublin has been appointed for the next two years.
Ray O’Donoghue, the Festival Director of the Donegal music, surf and sea festival Sea Sessions has got the job.
As first reported by the Business Post, O’Donoghue took up the post last week, which was part of the Night-Time Economy Taskforce recommendations which put plans in motion for Night-time Economy Advisors in Dublin City, Cork City, Limerick City, Galway City, Kilkenny, Drogheda, Sligo, Buncrana and Longford Town.
The idea of a person to specifically deal with late night economy in Dublin, has been floating around since 2016, when the idea became popular around Europe.
Ray O’Donoghue on LinkedIn said of the appointment:
It’s a position I’m really looking forward, it may be somewhat challenging but it’s also hugely exciting. The Night Time Economy, in the Capital City especially, is something that needs to parallel similar economies in European Capitals. Hopefully I’ll be able to, in someway help, get us on par with these major cities.
Meanwhile, members of Fine Gael have been pushing back on the planned license changes due that may, on principle, allow venues to open til 6am, allow longer pub hours, the abolishment of the archaic licensing system and cultural licenses changes to be implemented.
The Night-Time Economy Advisor job was posted in October, and here’s what the job entails, as per previous.
The ideal person has operational experience and knowledge in the Night-Time Economy, experience at a senior level of event management, communications, media, creative projects, public engagement, PR or promotion. Along, with knowledge of the current licensing laws and planning and development system and key national policies and strategies affecting the Night-Time Economy.
The Night-Time Economy Advisor duties will involve:
- Establishing a Night-Time Economy Committee.
- Optimise and collate local data which will feed into the preparation of an NTE Action Plan for the pilot area.
- Consult – conduct an extensive consultation process to engage the local community in the process of. developing ideas for the NTE in the pilot area. This can be done through workshops, town hall style meetings,
surveys or a mixture of different methods. - Review existing funding structures at local and national level to highlight potential funding streams for the Action Plan.
- Highlight challenges and opportunities and potential solutions
- Develop a comprehensive Action Plan to drive the NTE and support the implementation of the Plan.
