• Almost 40% of business people DO NOT believe their companies will be worse off following a BREXIT
• Over 1/3 of business people DO NOT believe the Irish economy will suffer after BREXIT
• Just under 20% of Irish businesses believe they will be BETTER OFF following BREXIT
• 88% of Irish businesses DO NOT think Ireland should consider leaving the EU.

11th July, 2016; Dublin, Ireland: Goldfish, the business-to-business cloud telecoms firm has undertaken a snap poll of its customers, to get their views on the prospects for their businesses and the wider economy follow the U.K. voting to leave the EU. The responses show some surprising results; far from being wholly pessimistic following the BREXIT outcome, a large percentage of business people believe it could benefit their businesses and the Irish economy, or will not have any detrimental effects.

238 customers responded to the snap poll. The first question asked whether respondents believed their businesses would better or worse off following BREXIT. Whilst the majority (61%) answered worse off, given the pessimism in the media this was expected to be higher. However, almost two fifths (39%) answered that they believed that they would be either better off or that there would be no effect on their business.

The second question related to how people thought the Irish economy would fare following a BREXIT. Not surprisingly the majority believe the economy would be worse off, however this was again much lower than expected at 66%. Over a third (34%) of respondents said that they thought the Irish economy would be better off or that there would be no detrimental effects. This was split between 19% believing the economy will be better off and 15% indicating that they thought there will be no change.

The one area where business people were overwhelming in their agreement, was Ireland’s continued membership of the EU. A significant majority (89%) indicated that they believe Ireland should not consider leaving the EU.

Gordon O’Neill, CEO of Goldfish.ie said: “At first glance the results do show a surprising amount of optimism following the BREXIT result, particularly given the potential drawbacks that have been outlined in the media. However, there is no doubt that a BREXIT could provide a big opportunity for Ireland and some sectors here do look like they could benefit. Let’s not forget that the default setting for the Irish psyche is one of natural optimism, so our tradition of thinking ‘sure it’ll be grand’ has probably played a BIG part here too.”

For further details, please contact Simon Palmer at Goldfish.ie on 01 687 6996 or simon.palmer@goldfish.ie

Notes to editors

About Goldfish.ie (Goldfish Telecom)

Goldfish.ie is a new generation of telecoms company that is helping thousands of businesses reduce their telecoms’ costs by moving them from a traditional telephone system, to a fully cloud-based service.
Goldfish.ie’s services operate just like a traditional telecoms provider, except that all calls are routed through the internet, instead of over a fixed telephone line. No on-site installation is required, so there are no set-up charges. Services are provided on a month-to-month basis, so customers are not tied to long-term contracts. This allows them to make significant savings via the lower set-up and call-costs that Goldfish.ie can offer.
The other advantages of a cloud-based service are that their customers can also benefit from access to other features that are not available through a traditional telephone system, such as Call Recording and Call Director.

Headquartered in Greystones Co Wicklow, Goldfish.ie’s customers include one of the biggest cloud storage companies in the world; also on their books are Irish construction company the Sisk Group and US conglomerate IDG, as well as a wide variety of Irish businesses and organisations from all sectors of business.