I thank you, Sir, for accepting this Adjournment matter. Kilmallock is probably the fourth largest town in County Limerick. It has a strong rural hinterland. Kilmallock and Newcastlewest were divested in December 1995 when an American company, Neodata, decided to close both operations. The Newcastlewest premises was sold to a private individual while a company established a teleservices centre in Kilmallock. This would be in conformity with the call by the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment at her recent party conference in Galway to people in the private sector to take the initiative and set up business ventures. In this instance a group of people bought the teleservices centre, customised and altered it and turned it into a a modern building that any potential teleservices could move into at short notice, get a turn key facility and establish an operation.
The people in the area who decided on this course of action deserve to be congratulated on their initiative. However, there has been disappointment since then. In July 1998 the Tánaiste visited the facility. I met her there with many other politicians and community leaders from the Kilmallock area. She commended the initiative shown by these people and, with the industrial agencies present, indicated that they would do their utmost to market the facility. To date there has been no movement of business to the area.
In view of the competition for industry on the Kilmallock to Limerick road and in the surrounding area, incentives must be offered to industrialists to move to rural locations. There is a huge incentive in the case of Kilmallock where there is a turn key facility ideally equipped on the teleservices side, which has recently been a booming part of the economy. In many instances potential industrialists do not have a customised building to move into.
The Tánaiste may have forgotten her visit to Kilmallock in July 1998, but Kilmallock has not forgotten her. Enterprise Ireland and SFADCc operate in the region and I ask them to try to get a potential industrialist for this community. The town has high levels of unemployment. Despite this it has a vibrancy, with the council spending almost £2 million in trying to revitalise the urban part. It is a town with a proud history, where two schools have amalgamated in recent times and there are now 800 pupils in a new educational establishment. The town also has a ready pool of labour with many people who are computer literate, articulate and good in customer relations and who have a proud tradition having worked with the previous company. The town now needs a shove by the promotion agencies to get an industrialist into this premises.
The Minister of State at the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Byrne, is deputising for the Tánaiste. There are probably similar communities in Wexford making a passionate plea for industrial development. In Kilmallock there is both a premises and a facility. All it needs is an employer to move into the location. I can assure whoever moves in that he will never regret his decision because he will get a very good workforce and premises.
