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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 25 Oct 1979

Vol. 316 No. 5

Written Answers. - Inner City Areas.

91.

asked the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Energy if he will make ministerial orders designating inner city areas as special areas for the purposes of allowing local authorities to grant aid of two-third remission of rates to commercial concerns setting up in such areas.

I take it that the Deputy's question relates to the Dublin inner city. I have not had a request from Dublin Corporation to designate inner city areas in order to enable them to grant, at their discretion, rates remission on industrial buildings. Moreover, I do not consider that this incentive would contribute significantly to the industrial development of this area.

The most serious obstacle to the promotion of industrial development in the Dublin inner city are the shortage of suitable sites and the high cost of land. The Deputy will be aware that the Industrial Development Authority are at present undertaking an extensive programme of site acquisition and factory construction in the area. To date the authority have acquired almost ten acres of land and have constructed 3,562 sq. metres of factory space. A further 19,192 sq. metres of factory space is planned. The IDA expect that these factories will, when occupied, provide work for 1,200 persons, the authority also plan to grant aid the creation of a further 800 jobs at other inner city locations over the next two years.

The Government announced in May 1979 that they had decided to establish an Inner City Group which would report to the Minister for Economic Planning and Development and whose main function would be to develop a programme of action by the various Departments and public agencies operating in the inner city. In order to accelerate the pace of action the sum of IR£1 million was allocated for this purpose in 1979.

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