andMr. Conlon asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will consider extending the facilities for grants payable in respect of under-developed areas to that portion of County Louth which at present comprises portion of Monaghan constituency.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Under-Developed Area Grants.
253.
Undeveloped areas were designated after consideration of the economic needs and merits of the areas concerned and have no necessary relationship with the limits of particular constituencies.
Is the Minister aware that there is a particular need in that portion of Louth for the same facilities as are available in Monaghan county? It may be argued that in Ardee town there is no unemployed but many of the people in Ardee town and the surrounding areas have to travel very long distances to seek employment or to work in the GEC factory at Dundalk or to employment in Drogheda. There is a special need to provide an incentive for an industry to be based in Ardee or in that portion of County Louth.
The possibility of the establishment of a further industry in Ardee or that portion of County Louth is not, of course, precluded under the present arrangements. I would, I think, find it difficult to be convinced that it was necessary to designate that area in order to attract further industry to it. The Deputy will be aware that certainly as far as the Dundalk area is concerned people are coming from Monaghan and other areas—indeed, I think about 300 come from the Newry area—to work in Dundalk. So that the area to which he is referring, while I do not say it cannot be improved, is a lot better off than some other areas about which we have been hearing at Question Time today.
I should like to point out the special geographical position of Ardee town which is situated, as the Minister knows, a very short distance from the County Monaghan border. There are special circumstances prevailing in County Monaghan for industrialists who want to establish factories there. In other words, they have only to move down the road to establish a factory in south Monaghan, thus depriving Ardee town of an industry. I am not making the case to take industry from Monaghan but what I am suggesting is that there is a special case for the extension of such facilities as operate in County Monaghan to a town which is so close to the Monaghan border.
I might be misleading the Deputy if I indicated to him that there was much hope of that happening but I shall have a look at it.