IDA park fails to attract company

A €3 MILLION business park developed by the IDA has been lying idle for the last six months because of a failure to attract investors.

The slow take-up of office space at the 71-acre Carlow Business and Technology Park is being mirrored around the country, the IDA confirmed yesterday.

However, the authority remains confident investors will come on stream once the buildings are built.

"The number of projects coming on stream has slowed significantly nationwide," said the IDA's Colm Donlon. "But we still plan to add an advance factory and two office blocks to the Carlow site and we are developing business parks in every major town in the country.

"Projects are coming but not at the pace of the Celtic Tiger era. It's running at an average of one project a week. We are still doing better than the European average and are ahead of our EU competitors."

The risk of developing a building is being taken by the private sector and old IDA buildings are being sold off netting €30-40 million per annum over the past three years.

This money is being pumped back into IDA-supported job creation and the development of business parks in every major town in the country.

Mr Donlon said summer is a traditionally quiet time for job creation.

"We're holding our own in the market, particularly in the pharmaceutical or life sciences sector," he said.

Achieving a spread of projects nationwide has been difficult in the past because of a lack of infrastructure, such as dedicated business parks.

This lies behind the drive to develop such facilities nationwide. The aim is to have up to three million square feet of high-quality office space available in the next couple of years, putting Ireland in a good position when the global upturn begins.

"Our job is to make sure every town in Ireland has sufficient sites and infrastructure to make it competitive and attract projects when the world economy recovers," said Mr Donlon.

"Once buildings start to appear on the Carlow site, we will have something better to market. Work began on the site six months ago. It's a bit early yet to have tenants. That typically takes up to a year."

But local authority members want to see job creation in the town. It has been hit by cuts at several plants, particularly at Braun, which cut several hundred jobs last year.

County council chairman Denis Foley is concerned that nobody seems interested in investing in Carlow.

"It is very disappointing after the amount of money that has been spent on this site. And it is extraordinary after all the publicity and hype the park has received," he said.