Kerry not getting fair share of FDI, says TD

A Kerry TD has claimed his county is not getting its fair share of IDA investment after it emerged that there are 16 times more people employed in IDA companies in Cork than there are in Kerry.

Just 1,874 of the total 30,419 people employed in IDA client companies in the Cork-Kerry region are based in Kerry. In total there are 158 multinational companies based in the region - all but 12 of them in Cork.

Fine Gael backbencher and Kerry South TD Brendan Griffin asked his party colleague, Jobs Minister Richard Bruton, about a dedicated IDA office in his county, “given the poor performance of the agency in respect of the county over the past 15 years”.

In response, Mr Bruton said IDA Ireland had told him it is satisfied “that its footprint in the South-West of the country is sufficient to meet the requirements for foreign direct investment (FDI) in both Cork and Kerry. He said the agency “actively incentivises and encourages investors to consider a range of potential locations in Ireland” but that the ultimate locations selected “are always decided by the companies themselves”.

However, figures provided separately by the Jobs Minister in response to a parliamentary question from Fianna Fáil’s Dara Calleary, shows that in the first six months of this year, while Cork — and indeed Limerick — had 19 IDA Ireland sponsored site visits by potential investors, Kerry had just three. Offaly, with half the population of Kerry, had five site visits over the period.

Mr Bruton also said companies supported by IDA Ireland in Kerry have added 361 new jobs between 2011and 2014, an increase of 24%. He compared that to 502 job losses in the period 2008–2010, a 25% decrease.

“A further boost to the county is the reinstatement of regional aid for Kerry under the new regional aid guidelines (RAG), which came into force on July 1, 2014,” he said. “The RAGs enable the State to grant state aid, at enhanced rates, to businesses in order to support new investment in productive projects in Ireland’s most disadvantaged regions.”

Jobs Minister Richard Bruton

Mr Griffin said the three visits to Kerry last year were actually an increase on previous years - he recalled one year where there were none.

“Last year’s performance by Kerry companies was quite positive as there was an increase of 236 net jobs. But overall, if you look at the amount of employment, 12 companies employing under 1,900 staff versus the Cork figure which is many multiples of that — per head of capita we should be a quarter of what Cork has by population. You have to factor in that Cork is the second largest urban centre in the country so you could weight it more heavily but we are under-performing, as far as I am concerned, in FDI.”

He said the fact Kerry’s restored position on the investment aid map means large companies looking to expand or establish in Ireland would have a more favourable tax system available to them in Kerry than Cork. He said an individual Kerry IDA office would be able to promote that advantage.

In the budget the Government announced the IDA had a target of 175 new investments — 80 new companies, 61 expansions, and 34 research and development investments. It said those should lead to 15,000 jobs.

Measures to be covered by a €250m allocation included IDA capital works including completion of “Advance Technology Buildings” in the likes of Tralee.