First of all I want to wish you a very happy and prosperous New Year. I hope your Christmas was enjoyable. It was a bit of a mixed bag for some. In my home county of Wexford, we experienced non-stop torrential rain for all of Christmas day. Over three and a half inches fell in some parts, which caused major floods and many bridges to collapse with the strain of bursting rivers. One farmer in my parish was good enough to get his tractor out on Christmas day and come to the aid of distressed neighbours, who were trapped in their flooded homes. When you add the restrictions of reduced family gatherings to all this, it felt a very strange Christmas indeed.

So what lies ahead for 2022? There will be a big move to reduce carbon emissions, right across all industries. With regards to our own sector, I think the demand from customers to purchase more electric and robotic machines will continue. However, I am excited about the research that is ongoing with regard to hydrogen as an energy source. With declining costs for renewable electricity, in particular from solar and wind, interest is growing in electrolytic hydrogen production. Dr. Faith Birol, who is the Executive Director at the International Energy Agency (IEA) said “Hydrogen is today enjoying unprecedented momentum. The world should not miss this unique chance to make hydrogen an important part of our clean and secure energy future”. We will watch this space.

With regard to trade shows and exhibitions, the next two or three months look a little uncertain. BTME and LAMMA have already been postponed, rescheduled to take place in March and May respectfully. This is probably the correct decision as many exhibitors were put in awkward positions - should they exhibit at a stand, that they have already paid for, and risk that they and their customers could catch COVID 19 during the exhibition, or decide not to take part and lose the stand money that they have already paid for? At least these decisions have been made for them. At the time of going to print, the Golf Industry Show (GIS) is still scheduled to take place from the 5th – 10th of February in San Diego. I suspect attendances will be lower both by visitors and exhibitors.

Throughout the pandemic I have been watching the daily case numbers. With the arrival of Omicron, case numbers have risen dramatically over the Christmas period but the hospital numbers have remained steady. Up to recently I have innocently held the view that, as long as hospital cases stay low and don’t rise too much, we should be fine. With over 94% of the population vaccinated, people are not getting as sick as before. However, I took a different view, when a friend of mine made the point that increased case numbers will lead to more infected people having to stay at home and being absent from work, even if they feel reasonably ok. An example was given of a situation where half of the personnel in an emergency response unit, such as the fire brigade, the RNLI, electricity repair crew or mountain rescue teams and even home carers, were to become infected and self isolate, that would lead to a serious situation resulting in people being neglected and abandoned. What if this was to happen in our own industry? We would have less people being available to carry out repairs to machines, and premises would have to temporarily close. So my message is to stay as safe as you can and observe the basic rules of wearing your mask, washing your hands and keeping your distance from others.