Nine counties miss out on IDA site visits

Nine counties with a combined population of more than 800,000 people have received just 22 IDA-sponsored visits by companies between them since 2010, yet Louth with a population of 123,000 has received 65 visits over the same period.

Figures released by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation show a number of counties are receiving significantly fewer IDA-organised visits by potential investors than their neighbours.

There are nine counties — Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan and Roscommon — which have each received four or fewer visits by companies over the last three and a half years. Longford has had no visits and Leitrim has only had one.

While both those counties have small populations, 38,970 and 31,778 respectively, some of the larger counties are faring little better.

For example, Wexford has a population of 145,273 and has one of the highest rates of unemployment (24% as of the last census) in the country, yet it has received just four visits since 2010. Meath, which has a population of 184,034 and an unemployment rate of 18%, has had three visits.

On the other hand, Dublin received 667 IDA-sponsored visits from companies between 2010 and Jun 2013 and Cork had 135 visits.

Fianna Fáil finance spokesman Michael McGrath said the fact that 53% of IDA-sponsored site visits so far this year have been to Dublin was further proof that the objective of balanced regional development was not being achieved.

“It should not be the case that there are almost five times the number of site visits to Dublin as there is to the country’s second city and largest county — Cork,” he said.

“The fact that counties such as Kildare, Kilkenny, Longford and Wexford have had no site visits whatsoever this year, and others such as Carlow, Kerry, Leitrim, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly and Wicklow have had just one visit, should set the alarm bells ringing in Government buildings. It is understandable that multinational companies will want to locate where there is a good infrastructure and highly-skilled workforce, but the Government is clearly failing to invest to make more parts of the country attractive for inward investment.”

Jobs Minister Richard Bruton said he was “mindful” of the need to address the concerns expressed to him by TDs across the Dáil about the low level of site visits to certain regional locations.

He said in order to achieve balanced regional economic development, IDA prioritises the marketing of its gateway locations within each region as the locations of critical mass and “highlights the opportunities provided by other locations on an opportunistic basis, which are within commuting distances of these gateways”.

Nonetheless, he said he had asked the IDA and Enterprise Ireland to work with his department to explore initiatives “to ensure we have a better approach to enterprise development in regional locations.”