Agency argues to be left off ‘Bord Snip’s radar’

THE head of Shannon Development – whose main tasks include jobs promotion in Shannon Free Zone and tourism in the mid-west – said yesterday that the organisation should not be on Bord Snip’s radar as it was self-financing.

Chief executive Dr Vincent Cunnane further suggested that Shannon Development’s blueprint should be adopted in other regions.

Speaking at the launch of its annual report, Dr Cunnane said the company generates the €30 million it needs in annual funding and gets less than €1m from the Department of Art, Sport and Tourism.

“Very little public sector exchequer funding makes its way to ShannonDevelopment,” Dr Cunnane said.

“So if the primary focus with Bord Snip is to look at exchequer funding, then Shannon Development shouldn’t be in their radar.”

The company, he said, had taken on extra work with fewer staff.

“We believe we should be a model for what other public sector bodies should be looking at in terms of efficiencies, in terms of added value, in terms of effectiveness and in terms of delivery,” said Dr Cunnane.

He said Shannon Development had proven time and again it could meet a crisis and come up with initiatives and solutions.

“Strong regions are vital for national economic recovery. As a regional economic development agency, Shannon Development has a unique ‘added value’ dimension.

“We operate in different sectors to generate regional benefits that cannot be delivered under the traditional, centralised, single sector approach to economic development,” he said.

Dr Cunnane said that investment in Shannon Free Zone companies continued to grow strongly during 2008 and included an announcement by Zimmer Holdings, a medical devices company, to invest a further €50 million, creating 250 jobs.

More than 7,000 people are employed in over 100 companies within the Free Zone areas, generating€3.5 billion in sales, of which 94% are exported.

Companies in the Free Zone buy in a range of services such as transport, power and IT and in 2007 this amounted to €742m, benefiting a wide range of businesses.

The company runs technology parks as well as leasing properties in theNational Technology Park at Plassey.

Dr Cunnane said while Tralee had suffered job losses, the numbers working at the local technology park had grown from 250 to 300.

They were pressing on with a third building in Tipperary Technology Park where 140 people work, as the park continued to attract public and private sector jobs.

On the tourism front, Dr Cunnane said last year they had engaged in strategic marketing of the Shannon region and succeeded in signing 35 major tourism marketing agreements with key travel companies world-wide.

He said: “These initiatives resulted in more than 426,000 additional bed nights for the Shannon region and boosted tourism spend by over €43m.”

Dr Cunnane, who is a member of the Dell task force headed by Denis Brosnan, said the interim report was now with Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan.

He said the report contained a comprehensive overview of the region’s needs, with national and regional aspects.

As key players around the cabinet table, the Taoiseach and Tánaiste did not hail from Dublin, Dr Cunnane said, so they were aware of how hard it is to bring real economic development to marginalised areas of the country.