James Leonard
Question:130 Mr. Leonard asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment the proposals, if any, he has for developing teleservicing in the Border region in view of the difficulty in retaining jobs in that region. [10815/97]
Written Answers. - Teleservicing Development.
In recent years Ireland has emerged as the undisputed leader in the field of pan-European call centres. In that time, over 40 overseas companies employing approximately 3,600 people have chosen Ireland as the base for their new European call centres. Dublin, Dundalk, Galway and Limerick have benefited from these investments to date.
However, only one of these projects has located in the Border countries so far. That scenario is mainly due to the requirement for large numbers of people with linguistic skills, who are mainly located in university cities.
Among the criteria for site selection for telemarketing projects are the availability of linguistics skills, telecommunications infrastructure and suitable office accommodation.
The telecommunications infrastructure has now become available in all but the most remote locations in the State. Regarding the office accommodation, IDA Ireland is working with private developers to ensure the availability of suitable office accommodation on a national spread. Also, various initiatives are under way to increase the availability of language skills.
IDA Ireland's regional policy for employment growth in locations outside the larger urban centres is currently being implemented vigorously.It is expected that in line with other locations, the Border region will benefit from the recent development whereby financial incentives are biased in favour of regional locations.
IDA Ireland is hopeful that many more pan-European call centres will come on stream in the near future and the regional spread of these projects is being pursued in line with the criteria outlined above.
With regard to the indigenous sector, Forbairt, in co-operation with Telecom Éireann, sponsored a detailed study on teleworking "Telefutures" in 1996, to promote teleworking throughout the country including the Border region.
Forbarit organised a series of 12 seminars throughout the country with the objective of creating awareness and promoting new teleservice opportunities for Irish businesses. Three of these seminars were held in Letterkenny, Sligo and Monaghan respectively in October-November 1996 and in excess of 100 people attended the three seminars. The seminars were published through radio and local advertising.
Forbairt will continue to promote new teleservice enterprises in Border regions in 1997, through promotional events, studies, promotional literature and partnership programmes.