South east gets IDA jobs Tsar

One of the country’s unemployment blackspots is to have its own jobs tsar after the Government’s decision to appoint a regional manager to the area.

Waterford City and the wider southeast have suffered from a number of major job losses in recent years, such as those at Waterford Crystal and TalkTalk, and calls for a dedicated IDA Ireland regional boss have been answered with the deployment of the agency’s former director of Europe to the area.

Anne-Marie Tierney-Le Roux will have responsibility for counties Waterford, Kilkenny, Wexford, Carlow, and south Tipperary as regional manager. Based in Waterford, her main brief is to market the region to clients and work with “global operations teams” in winning investment for the southeast.

“I am delighted to be appointed to this key role at a time when renewed focus is to be given to efforts to attract FDI to regional locations,” she said. “Having a dedicated regional manager for the southeast is part of that focus.”

A new strategy for the area, to be launched shortly, will set out “our aims and the steps we plan to achieve them”, she said. Until now, the lack of a regional manager for the southeast was a matter of controversy and Waterford Fine Gael TD John Deasy clashed with his party colleague, Jobs Minister Richard Bruton, last year on the issue.

Following the appointment yesterday, Mr Deasy said the move has been needed since a restructuring of the agency in 1996 saw Waterford falling under the remit of the Cork office.

“We’ve seen some positive announcements in Waterford and an improvement in unemployment levels over the past 18 months,” said Mr Deasy. “But because we’re trying to recover from such a low base I’ve been firmly of the view that a lot more needed to be done.”

A native of Kilkenny, Ms Tierney-Le Roux is a law graduate of UCD, holds an MSc in International Marketing, and is an associate practitioner of the European Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Before joining IDA Ireland 13 years ago, she worked for PriceWaterhouseCooper in London. She was IDA Ireland’s director of Europe since 2009.

Mr Bruton also welcomed the appointment of Ms Tierney-Le Roux, describing it as “a significant boost for jobs” in the region.

IDA CEO Martin Shanahan said the appointment is “further evidence of IDA’s commitment to regional development”.