Government policy impeding Cork’s bid to attract industry

CORK is losing out to other European cities on foreign direct investment because Government policy is restricting the areas where international companies can choose to locate.

On Monday, the annual general meeting of the Cork branch of the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) will be told that Cork is facing a number of impediments in its attempts to attract industry and that Government guidelines are among the most disruptive of these.

“Apart from the general worldwide recession and the specific recession in Ireland, other impediments are conspiring to make it more difficult to attract industry into Cork, in particular the Government policy that 50% of all foreign direct investment coming into this country must go to areas outside of Dublin or Cork,” said Joe O’Brien, director of the CIF southern region.