Local TD Denis Naughten has asked the Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar, to ensure that the IDA acquire additional land from the HSE for industrial investment in the town of Ballinasloe.
Speaking in the Dáil recently Denis Naughten pointed out that in Ballinasloe on the St Brigid’s Hospital Campus we have 50 acres of development land with water, wastewater, fibre optic cable, gas and motorway access adjoining the lands at the IDA campus, and these need to be acquired for future industrial development
He went on to point out that the town of Ballinasloe cannot be viewed in isolation, because these lands are just 15 minutes away from the industrial lands in Athlone where there are challenges accessing available development land.
If the IDA were to purchase some of those lands at St. Brigid’s and develop a new industrial park there, just west of Athlone, it could exploit the pipeline of industrial investment that is coming into Athlone now.
Responding to Deputy Naughten, the Tánaiste said “we have some very good IDA lands and a very good IDA site in Ballinasloe. The priority there would be to get it developed and get jobs into it. I do not know whether we need to expand it or not to include the old St. Brigid’s Hospital lands, but I will certainly speak to the IDA about that. Decisions on property transactions are not made by the Minister for very good reasons so I cannot make a commitment on it because that is beyond my powers. However, I will certainly speak to the CEO of the IDA about it. I have been to the land in Ballinasloe, and I would be confident that we would be able to secure investment there at some point in the future. There is also quite a significant land bank in Athenry as well, which I think could be useful in the future too.”
Commenting on the Tánaiste’s response “I hope that this intervention will not only lead to the IDA securing further lands for development in Ballinasloe, but it must be tied into a coordinated marketing strategy for what is a unique IDA site with such a large State-owned land holding that has access to gas, water, wastewater and fibre in abundance,” concluded Denis Naughten.
Dáil debates
Thursday, 19 May 2022
Ceisteanna Eile – Other Questions
Job Creation
Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
- To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the steps that he is taking to support job creation in regional towns; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23489/22]
Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
- To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the steps that he is taking to support job creation in locations outside cities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23490/22]
Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
Some eight in ten businesses are now struggling to fill vacancies.
We need a suite of new and novel solutions to address this. The highest level of demand is across the banking, finance and insurance sectors. These are jobs that can be done in any part of this country. To achieve this, we need to make our regions far more attractive not just for employers, but for employees as well.
Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 and 30 together.
I believe we can achieve a record number of 2.5 million people at work in Ireland by 2024. That means full employment and a job for everyone who wants one. It also means ensuring job opportunities in all parts of Ireland in order to achieve balanced regional development.
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and its agencies have a strong role to play in this agenda through direct assistance to businesses, as well as promotion and enhancement of regional locations as places for businesses to invest and create jobs. Enterprise Ireland is targeting 45,000 jobs over the next three years, while Industrial Development Authority, IDA, Ireland has made progress in boosting investment in regional locations. In 2021, of the 249 investments secured by the IDA, over half were for locations outside Dublin.
The local enterprise offices, LEOs, are at the very heart of business development and entrepreneurship in towns and communities across all regions. The LEOs have just come out of an eighth consecutive year of growth with 7,400 new jobs created by LEO clients in 2021. We will also make sure that town centre first policy, a policy that focuses on regeneration of rural towns and villages, aligns with our plans as a Department. The new regional enterprise plans to 2024 reinforce and build on the core activities of the IDA, Enterprise Ireland, the LEOs and other State bodies involved in enterprise development.
Up to €180 million is being made available over the next few years to develop and implement collaborative and innovative enterprise projects that will not just sustain, but add to employment at county, regional and national level. To create a strong pipeline of projects for future funding calls, Enterprise Ireland has also announced a new competitive priming and feasibility scheme of up to €5 million. This scheme has just closed for applications.
We want the main regional centres to develop as viable alternatives for investment, with significant funding being channelled through the Project Ireland 2040. The national broadband plan and the potential of remote working also opens up new opportunities for enterprise in rural locations.
As the Deputy is aware, in 2020, Harmac Medical Products announced a major investment in its facility at Castlerea to accelerate the manufacturing of surgical masks and non-invasive ventilation products, creating 60 new roles. I understand that all of these roles have now been filled. In 2021, an Enterprise Ireland client company, namely, Chanelle Pharma, announced plans for 60 jobs in Ballinasloe and a €5 million investment in the old Aptar facility.
Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
As the Tánaiste knows, we discussed the idea of the hub-and-spoke strategy as set out in Project Ireland 2040 around the Cabinet table. The Government took the decision the designate Athlone as the new potential city, helping to attract IDA jobs and investment into the region and ensuring that it is now fast becoming the silicon heartlands, with a bigger percentage of the workforce employed in software development than any other town in Ireland or the UK. Towns such as Roscommon have an abundance of ready-to-move-into office space. The objective behind this strategy of creating Athlone as a hub was to use it as a hook to bring investment into the surrounding towns of Tullamore, Mullingar, Longford, Roscommon and Ballinasloe. However, that is not being achieved at the moment. What are the Department and the Tánaiste doing to achieve that?
Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
In Project Ireland 2040 and the national spatial strategy, we took the view that we needed to make sure that the major development centres were not just the five major cities. We identified Athlone, Letterkenny with Derry, Sligo and Drogheda-Dundalk as potential growth centres. It makes enormous sense that Athlone should be one of those, given its location in the middle of the country in the midlands. We have seen major investments in Athlone in recent years. It is becoming a hub for investment and industry. The pipeline is very good for Athlone and there will be more announcements coming in the next couple of months, which will be very positive.
On the hub-and-spoke model that the Deputy described, getting jobs in Longford, Mullingar and Roscommon town and so on is a little bit more complicated, but it is what we are trying to do. There are some good examples of companies that are willing to take spaces in other towns, but they will often have their own reasons around it. Certainly, the banking and finance area has huge sensitivities about data protection and do not like the idea of people working off-site. They were favourable to it in the pandemic because it was necessary but are reluctant about it now.
Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
We have an ideal site in Carrick-on-Shannon for that. I want to focus on this pipeline coming to Athlone, which is very positive. However, as the Tánaiste knows, we have a challenge in Athlone on both the Roscommon and the Westmeath sides in terms of available development land. Yet, 15 minutes up the road we have 50 acres of development land with water, waste water, fibre optic cable, gas and the motorway on the IDA campus and adjoining lands at St. Brigid’s Hospital in Ballinasloe. I have asked the Tánaiste before and he has agreed to look at the potential for the IDA to purchase some of those lands at St. Brigid’s and develop a new industrial park there, just west of Athlone, to exploit that pipeline that is coming into Athlone at the moment. Can I get a commitment from the Tánaiste that the IDA will secure additional lands there and will market that campus in Ballinasloe?
Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
On the general move to the regions, I would strongly support the concept. However, not only to the major towns, but to the smaller villages as well, in order to draw the intense population away from the major centres and bring them into the rural heartland, ensuring the future growth of a rural economy and rural stability.
Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
I thank the Deputies for their remarks. We have some very good IDA lands and a very good IDA site in Ballinasloe. The priority there would be to get it developed and get jobs into it. I do not know whether we need to expand it or not to include the old St. Brigid’s Hospital lands but I will certainly speak to the IDA about that. Decisions on property transactions are not made by the Minister for very good reasons so I cannot make a commitment on it because that is beyond my powers. However, I will certainly speak to the CEO of the IDA about it. I have been to the land in Ballinasloe and I would be confident that we would be able to secure investment there at some point in the future. There is also quite a significant land bank in Athenry as well, which I think could be useful in the future too.
Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
If we look at towns such as Roscommon, they are reliant on indigenous employers. However, the supports for employers with more than ten staff are only focused on the export sector and the issue of import substitution is ignored. This strategy needs to change post-Covid, particularly when we have seen the threats we have had to supply chains. Will the Tánaiste review that?
Second, before the end of this decade, this country will have the most geographically extensive web of pure fibre telecommunications network in the world. This will be developed all around the major provincial towns within the next 18 months. We need a new national and international strategy to attract inward investment into those provincial towns which have a unique offering.
Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Under the new Enterprise Ireland strategy, the traditional ten employees or fewer rule has been relaxed. Increasingly, we are supporting companies financially with loans and grants that are in that space of having more than ten employees but are not IDA or Enterprise Ireland clients. Therefore, we have moved beyond that. However, EU state aid rules apply. EU state aid rules allow micro-companies to be treated differently and that is not something we can change.
Also, it does not make sense to give state aid to a company that will only take business from another company down the road. That is why we tend to focus on those that are exporters. The issue around import substitution is that it is potentially using state aid to take business from another European company. Many of these measures are limited by EU state aid rules for good reason but, increasingly, we are supporting companies with more than ten employees.
On the opportunities that arise from the national broadband plan, Deputy Naughten is absolutely right. We are starting to see investments in towns that would not have traditionally seen investments, for example, in recent weeks, in Cashel and Mountmellick. It is encouraging to see 40, 50 or 100 jobs being created in relatively small towns. I want to see more of that. The provision of fibre in the national broadband plan will open that up in a way that would not have been the case without it.