IDA has 'washed their hands of West Cork' — Council asks for unused landbanks

Cork County councillor maintained the IDA is concentrating on metropolitan areas at the expense of rural ones

Fianna Fáil councillor Joe Carroll said the IDA had unused landbanks in Bantry and Skibbereen and he had been told by an IDA official that one of them in Skibbereen is being sold off, with negotiations on the matter ongoing. File picture: Denis Minihane

The IDA is being asked to give its unused landbanks to Cork County Council amid accusations it is no longer interested in seeking industries to fill them in job-starved rural areas of the region.

Standing orders were suspended at a meeting in County Hall to hear a debate on the issue which was requested by Fianna Fáil councillor Joe Carroll. He said the IDA had unused landbanks in Bantry and Skibbereen and he had been told by an IDA official that one of them in Skibbereen is being sold off, with negotiations on the matter ongoing. 

Mr Carroll said this appeared to be a private sale and the council should have been given first refusal. He said the IDA, in his mind, has “washed their hands of West Cork".

“I did hear there was no interest (in the Skibbereen site) but they weren’t making any attempt to attract people there either if you ask me,” he added.

Fianna Fáil councillor Patrick Gerard Murphy maintained the IDA is concentrating on metropolitan areas at the expense of rural ones. “They should allow somebody else with the capacity or interest to use these landbanks, like the council,” he said.

Mayor of County Cork, Independent councillor Danny Collins, said he knew of six young people from the Bantry area who had emigrated in recent weeks because they couldn’t find jobs.

Fine Gael councillor John O’Sullivan said: "There was never a more important time for IDA to support rural areas because agriculture, tourism and fishing are under pressure. Unless we can get employment into peripheral areas there's no future for them.”

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Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil councillor William O’Leary pointed out that it isn’t just West Cork suffering. He said the IDA had created a fully-serviced site at the former Fitzgerald Camp in Fermoy after it was closed by the army more than 20 years ago. In that time he said that not one single industry has moved into it even though it was in an ideal location and a very short distance from the Cork-Dublin motorway.

Mr O’Leary said he would be delighted if the IDA put it on the market because he’s sure it will be snapped up quickly. “The fact is there is very little being done to bring industry to the area,” he added.

Fianna Fáil councillor Ian Doyle said his hometown of Charleville is fairing far better as the council and IDA industrial sites are full there and more land is now needed to facilitate businesses which want to locate there.

Councillors agreed to write to the IDA asking that it send senior officials to County Hall to address local public representatives on the issues they had raised during the debate.

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