Ivan Yates
Ceist:8 Mr. Yates asked the Minister for the Marine if he will outline the benefits to date, if any, arising from the establishment of a freeport at Ringaskiddy, County Cork; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Ringaskiddy Freeport.
The freeport of Ringaskiddy, County Cork, was established with a view to encouraging economic activity and employment in the Cork area. There are currently four companies and one subsidiary company operating in the freeport area, while 1989-90 saw 65 companies on site visits to Ringaskiddy.
The area is being vigorously marketed by Cork Harbour Commissioners and the Industrial Development Authority. Individual companies in the freeport benefit from deferred liability for customs duties and VAT, as well as simplified customs documentation and procedures. The foregoing incentives together with the marketing strategy being pursued will, I am hopeful, result in new businesses establishing in the freeport area in the future.
In view of the benefits of freeport status, would the Minister consider, as they have done in Britain, extending this to other ports and in that context would he give particular consideration to the port of Rosslare?
I am interested in the reference to the extension of the facility to other ports in Britain. For the most part it has not been a great success as a stimulus to economic development in the areas which got this status. Some have been successful but most have been disappointing. In the United States only one freeport developed greatly, but I will take into account what the Deputy said about Rosslare.
This question relates solely to Ringaskiddy.
Would the Minister not agree that up to now the Ringaskiddy freeport has been a dismal failure as far as freeport status is concerned and that the projections first mooted for Ringaskiddy freeport have not been realised?
The projections that were mooted may have been, as the Deputy implies, over euphoric. In excess of £30 million has been spent on the harbour. I visited the area in the early eighties and the industrial sites are second to none. I cannot see how in the end it will not be a great advantage to the economic development of that area.
Is the Minister aware that one of the few companies set up in Ringaskiddy freeport has gone out of business? Is he aware that the marketing body set up to deal with the development of the freeport do not have the necessary resources? Is he also aware that morale is at an all time low because of a lack of support from both the Department of the Marine and the Department of Finance? Is he further aware that they cannot compete with the other freeport areas — Dublin and Shannon — because of the failure of the Minister to give them the 10 per cent corporation tax concession? It is a freeport in name only and one of the best kept secrets in Europe because people do not seem to be aware of its existence.
Brevity please.
What does the Minister propose to do now in relation to the freeport? Will he admit that it has been——
The question is over long.
——an attempt to placate the unemployment problem in Cork and that it has had no effect?
The Deputy's supplementary question referred, first to the role of the Industrial Development Authority — which is a matter for a different Minister — and, second to the role of the Minister for Finance. I would advise him to direct his questions to the respective Ministers. So far as my obligations are concerned, I am in total support of the freeport and I am hopeful that, as a result of the efforts of the IDA in getting 65 firms to come and inspect it as a possible location for industry, there will be considerable economic development.
We will have a brief and relevant question from Deputy Allen.
Would the Minister admit that even though 65 companies may have come to view the location nobody stayed and the companies were already in Cork before the freeport was ever set up? Can he now commence an initiative between his Department and the Departments of Industry and Commerce and Finance to salvage the wreck of the Cork freeport? It is a wreck because it is in shambles and people are treating it as a joke. Would the Minister with the two other Government Departments——
Relevant, brief, pertinent. Deputy Allen, is leor sin.
A sharpening of the marketing activity there is called for.