asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce the steps he is taking to provide employment in Killarney town, County Kerry, having regard to the high emigration rate from the area.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Kerry Employment.
5.
(Limerick East): I am informed by the Industrial Development Authority that they are actively promoting four factories ranging in size from 3,200 sq. ft. to 26,600 sq. ft. and an industrial site of 13 acres approximately at Killarney for industrial purposes.
I should add that the IDA have a separate office in Tralee which concentrates. exclusively on the promotion of County Kerry for suitable overseas projects and the development of a healthy small industries sector.
Is the Minister aware that these advance factories have been promoted by the IDA over the past three or four years without success? Is he also aware that the unemployment rate in the Killarney area is rising faster than anywhere else in Kerry, indeed than anywhere else in the country? Will he personally intervene to get something done to provide more employment in the Killarney area?
(Limerick East): As I said, there is a specific IDA office in Tralee which concentrates exclusively on the promotion of County Kerry. This is unusual because normally the IDA establish offices which promote a region rather than an individual county. To that extent Kerry is treated especially already. The fact that there are many empty advance factories indicates that the building of such factories was far in excess of demand.
Killarney Electronics were set up in the early eighties with a potential of 488 jobs. Can the Minister say what steps have been taken by him and his Department to provide a reasonable level of employment in this factory having regard to the fact that there are only 25 or 30 persons employed there at present?
(Limerick East): I am not prepared to discuss individual factories unless a specific question is put down looking for such information.
Does the Minister agree that it is reasonable to assume, if he is here to answer a question in relation to a town the size of Killarney, he should be fully briefed in relation to industries in that town, their employment content and the potential of the industry when it was set up?
(Limerick East): It is reasonable to assume that I am very well briefed but it is also reasonable to assume that a Deputy should get an answer to the question he put down, not to a different one. If he wanted the answer to that question he should have put it down in the first place.
The Minister referred earlier to the IDA office in Tralee. However, this is a one man office and has proved to be a failure. Has he any proposals to expand this office or to promote industry in Kerry, particularly in south Kerry?
(Limerick East): The staffing of the office in Tralee is obviously a matter for the IDA but I understand they have been quite successful in promoting industry in the Tralee area. I could undertake to draw the attention of the IDA to the Deputy's views that more attention should be paid to Killarney.
Before calling the next question I ask the Minister and Deputies to bear in mind rulings of the Chair given last week, which may be relevant.