Industrial Development

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 23 November 2023

Thursday, 23 November 2023

Questions (10)

Brendan Griffin

Question:

10. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the up-to-date position regarding the provision of a new IDA Ireland advance facility at Kerry Technology Park; the anticipated timeline for the various stages in the process of delivering the new facility; the progress made in the past three years while this Deputy has been seeking regular updates through parliamentary questions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51506/23]

Oral answers (12 contributions)

Deputy Brendan Griffin

I did not realise four questions would be skipped. I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for her discretion; I appreciate it. I ask the Minister to update the House on the efforts to provide a new advance facility in Kerry Technology Park and to create jobs in County Kerry.

Deputy Simon Coveney

I thank the Deputy for the question. IDA Ireland has made considerable property investments in Kerry under its current strategy, including this year with the acquisition of over 16 ha of land at Kerry Technology Park. IDA Ireland is now working to identify a suitable site within this land bank for the construction of an advance building solution. Securing planning permission on the construction of the building will take some time such that IDA Ireland cannot outline a specific date by which the project will be completed, although it is looking to progress the project as quickly as possible. Kerry Technology Park is already home to internationally recognised companies, such as JRI America and Astellas, both companies that the Deputy will know well, I am sure. In September 2023, Astellas announced its intention to build a €330 million state-of-the-art facility to operate in the park.

Under its current strategy IDA Ireland is committed to delivering 19 advance building solutions across six regions in 15 locations, with eight buildings now complete, a further five to be on-site in 2024 and the remainder in the planning and site selection stages. IDA Ireland will continue to maintain a focus on its property portfolio in regional locations to support the project pipeline, including in Kerry, and will continue to position Kerry for vital and in-person site visits for prospective companies in 2023 and beyond.

The completion of the Macroom and Ballyvourney bypass will make a big difference in getting itineraries down into Kerry. Regarding the number of people employed in IDA Ireland companies in the south west, Cork is very dominant, having 50,000 or so people employed. We would certainly like to see more visits and announcements for Kerry, which I think can happen.

Deputy Brendan Griffin

I thank the Minister for the update. When County Kerry is included with Cork city and county in those south-west figures, the lack of foreign direct investment, proportionately, in County Kerry often gets masked. It is important to acknowledge that Kerry does not punch as heavily as we should and we need to widen our economic base. We depend too much on the tourism and hospitality sector for employment in the county and we need to spread that. That is why I am raising this matter. It is important that we have a new advance facility for Tralee. I am not being cynical but I seem to have got the same answer for the last three years about the progress on this. It is a very noble ambition but I would like to see more progress on this now. I ask the Minister to apply his direct attention to this project, which would be marvellous for Tralee. Each response I have received since 2020 has more or less outlined the same level of progress, or lack thereof.

The news about Astellas and JRI America is fantastic. However, Central Pharma was the last advance facility to be announced for Tralee. Five years after that announcement, nobody is working in that building in Tralee. There should be up to 100 people there now. Given the amount of revenue forgone and the number of jobs forgone, the Minister needs to review that advance facility. He needs to talk to IDA Ireland about what is happening there because Tralee deserves better than that.

Deputy Simon Coveney

I would not move on that quickly from the Astellas announcement. The Deputy said he has got similar answers for some years. That is a really significant delivery for Kerry. It is a €330 million advance manufacturing facility for a big global name. It will employ a significant number of people in Kerry and specifically Tralee. That announcement happened in September, which is only a couple of months ago. I take the point, which is a fair one, that when we talk about the number of IDA-backed companies and the number of people employed by those companies in the south west, that sometimes masks the fact that the vast majority of those jobs are in Cork rather than Kerry. Historically, there is a series of reasons that is the case, such as international connectivity, roads, access issues, university presence and so on.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

Thank you.

Deputy Simon Coveney

Much of that has changed under this Government.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

Thank you.

Deputy Simon Coveney

We have a new technological university and a new road into Kerry.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

The Minister will get a chance to come back again.

Deputy Simon Coveney

We are starting to see some of the results now with, for example, Astellas.

Deputy Brendan Griffin

The news about Astellas is fantastic. I look out my kitchen window every morning at Astellas across Castlemaine Harbour. The fact that it will now also locate in Tralee is fantastic news for the county.

I will point out three things to the Minister. First, the previous advance facility has not worked to date. Nobody has worked in that site to date and no one is working there this morning. The Minister needs to revisit that because it is not good enough. A significant amount of Exchequer funding was put in to developing the facility and we do not have the levels of employment we should have in that facility to date. There needs to be serious interaction between IDA Ireland, the Minister and the company in question to get people working there.

Second, we need progress on the second promised advance facility for Kerry Technology Park. As I said, I have been getting the same answers for the past three years and I am not seeing any progress.

Third, there needs to be consideration for a new advance facility in the south of the county, particularly in the Killarney area. We need to widen the economic base. We need more opportunities for people and certainly the south of the county needs that.

Deputy Simon Coveney

This Government and the previous one have tried to focus on the competitiveness proposition for Kerry.

You do not just bring multinationals in and place them where you want. They will go where they want to go and they will look at the options they have in Ireland.

It is our job to make sure we have regional development in every part of Ireland. We have set a target for IDA Ireland as regards delivery that it ensure that at least half of the companies in which it is investing and growing are outside the Dublin area. For Enterprise Ireland, at least two thirds of the Irish companies is growing and expanding must be outside the Dublin area, including places like Kerry. That is why the Government is investing in advance facilities in Kerry, has invested in a significant upgrade of the road between Cork and Kerry and has invested in MTU in order that Kerry now has its own university through a shared campus with Cork. All of that will mean more interest, more investment and more multinationals coming to Kerry over time. We have to persuade them to go there with a competitiveness proposition. I assure the Deputy that IDA Ireland is focused on doing that.