Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 April 2022
10. Deputy Fergus O'Dowd asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will outline Government plans to attract indigenous and foreign direct investment to Drogheda in 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18658/22]
View answerDrogheda and east Meath have experienced great population growth recently. Indeed, there has been an exponential increase in this regard. Drogheda has been designated as a regional growth centre in the national development plan, NDP, which we welcome. What plans does the Minister have to provide additional employment opportunities for people in Drogheda and east Meath? The Minister is aware that the M1 motorway is chock-a-block with traffic going from Drogheda and east Meath to Dublin every morning, from about 5.30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thousands of people want to work at home in this regional growth centre. Can the Minister please give me an update?
I thank Deputy O'Dowd for raising this question and his ongoing advocacy for the town of Drogheda. As he is aware, it and Dundalk have been designated as growth centres on the Dublin-Belfast corridor in Project Ireland 2040. The IDA is targeting 40 investments for the mid-east region from 2021 to 2024.
Louth is already home to 35 IDA Ireland client companies directly employing more than 4,500 people in technology, life sciences, international financial services and engineering and industrial technologies. In September 2021, ITRenew, a leader in circular cloud and sustainable data centre infrastructure announced it will create 40 jobs in Drogheda, and more recently Becton, Dickinson and Company, BD, announced the creation of 100 additional jobs with a €62 million investment to expand its production at its site in Drogheda.
Over the course of IDA Ireland's current strategy, the agency will provide 19 advanced building solutions across the country, and one of them will be in Drogheda. In June 2021, IDA Ireland acquired two land banks in County Louth, one in Drogheda and one in Dundalk, and these form part of IDA Ireland's long-term strategic plan to position Louth and the wider region to compete for foreign direct investment.
Enterprise Ireland has also supported and continues to work with six projects in County Louth, funded under the regional enterprise development fund and the Border enterprise development fund to a total of €11.5 million. The Minister of State, Deputy English, recently published a regional enterprise plan for the north east that encompasses Louth, Cavan and Monaghan. New funding of up to €180 million is being provided to back up these plans.
As I mentioned, Project Ireland 2040 identifies Drogheda as having a significant regional role to play to develop the economic potential of the Dublin-Belfast corridor and in particular the core Drogheda-Dundalk-Newry network and to promote and enhance international visibility. IDA Ireland will continue to work closely with Enterprise Ireland and our indigenous base of companies to identify synergies, enhance clusters, participate in site visits and maximise benefits for the region so that we can increase employment in Drogheda and have many more people working in and around the town rather than having to commute from it.
While I welcome the engagement of IDA Ireland with the local chamber of commerce and the Tánaiste's visit to BD when that significant investment was announced, the fact is that we have had no spin-off from the Amazon data centre. Data centres are very important for attracting other industries and potential employers that need to be near their data. Could the Tánaiste expand on what further or other actions we can take locally to work with IDA Ireland to attract more industry in?
The commute is killing family life and destroying the quality of life locally. People are telling me they would welcome the designation of Drogheda as a regional growth centre, they would like to see more jobs. There is also a major structural deficit with the northern cross route on the back foot in terms of Government decision and local government interaction. There is a lot of concern locally that the Government is not doing enough to deal with the northern cross route or to attract more industry into our town.
I thank the Deputy. There are quite a lot of data centres in my constituency too. They are a very important part of the modern economy but in reality the amount of employment they produce is quite small. The number of people actually working in them is quite low. There are a lot of people working on them during construction, but not when they are actually up and running. The spin-off from them, realistically, is quite limited.
Probably the best thing we can do for Drogheda is make use of that new IDA Ireland land bank, ideally not for data centres but for some other form of industrial development that would be more labour intensive and would therefore create more job opportunities for people in the town, so that more people have the opportunity to work and live in Drogheda and not have to commute. On improving the commute, the best thing we can do is promote more remote working. That has made a big difference in people's lives in terms of more time at home and with family, and less time commuting. A project the Deputy and I are both very committed to is the extension of the DART to make commuting in and out of Dublin a more pleasant experience for those who do it.
I hear the Tánaiste. Part of the argument about data centres, and it is top priority for IDA Ireland to encourage them, is that they are supposed to be capable of attracting further ancillary employment. It is not acceptable if we attract them in but do not get the spin-off from them. Amazon is interacting very well with the local community and I laud its efforts in the community spirit it is generating. I hear what the Tánaiste is saying. Drogheda is now the largest town in Ireland, and is shortly to become a city. It is a designated growth centre. IDA Ireland is paying attention to it. My job here is to repeat and reiterate the demand locally for more employment and investment. If, in his present role, the Tánaiste can fill the 40 acres of land which IDA Ireland recently bought, I would be very happy indeed.
I hear the demands and I hear the call for increased investment in Drogheda and more good job opportunities in the town in addition to the ones that are there already. That is why IDA Ireland has secured that 40-acre site. We need to get it serviced and get it ready and promote it to potential investors. These things can have a long pipeline. IDA Ireland bought that site because it and Government believe this is a really good town to invest in as a result of the quality of people who live there but due to its location relatively close to Dublin and Dublin Airport and on the Belfast-Dublin corridor. We have seen some very big investments in Dundalk in recent years and we would like to see something of that scale on the new site in Drogheda. I am certainly working towards that. We will work with the Deputy on it as well.
