‘IDA needs to focus more on local areas’

Jobs and Innovation minister Richard Bruton has said the IDA needs to be more focussed on local areas when it comes to job creation, to get a regional spread of new employment.

Mr Bruton said yesterday that while the target of the IDA when it comes to attracting foreign direct investment is to locate 50% of projects in the Dublin or Cork areas, that shouldn’t preclude other parts of the country from benefiting.

“PayPal is an example of a company that started in Dublin but expanded into the Border, Midlands, West region,” he said at a gathering of city and county managers in Kilkenny, who were briefed on the new ’Succeed in Ireland’ scheme.

In response to questions about IDA strategy regarding the sitting of new employment, Mr Bruton said: “We need to get the IDA more focussed on local areas,” and that “the idea is to get a regional spread”.

‘Succeed in Ireland’ is the Government’s new initiative aimed at encouraging people to use their contacts abroad to help create jobs.

The aim is to create 5,000 jobs over the next five years and the scheme has been backed by actors Martin Sheen and Saoirse Ronan, as well as dancer Michael Flatley. They feature in a promotional video shown at yesterday’s meeting.

‘Succeed in Ireland’ is run by Connect Ireland, a firm headed by Terry Clune of Taxback.com, who are offering a reward of €1,500 for every job created as a result of anyone getting their contacts abroad to invest.

“With this Connect Ireland programme we are not looking for the CEOs of companies,” Mr Clune said. “We’re looking for Mary who’s working as a receptionist in a gaming company in Sydney,” he added.

Meanwhile, Environment Minister Phil Hogan said it was a “genuinely important initiative” .

In relation to IDA strategy, Mr Hogan said that while companies from outside the jurisdiction “cannot be dictated to” as to where they should locate, “as part of government policy we would like to see a regional spread of job opportunities right throughout the entire island of Ireland”.

The South-East has the highest unemployment rate in the country, he said, but there was an effort being made to prioritise job creation in the region.

“I believe the South-East has been neglected for far too long by successive governments and agencies and that’s reflected in the fact that we have a very high level of unemployment.”

Chairman of Kilkenny County Council, Cllr Paul Cuddihy, said that the IDA “has to have a more regional approach” to new employment projects and that local areas “have to be ready” when such projects are in the offing.