Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 3 May 2012
154 Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of Industrial Development Agency site visits in Waterford city and county by the IDA since the 500 job losses at Talk Talk in 2011; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22435/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraI am informed by IDA Ireland that in the seven month period since the announcement of the closure of Talk Talk in September 2011 there have been 12 IDA sponsored site visits by potential investors to Waterford city and county. There were a total of 11 such visits to Waterford in each of 2010 and 2011. Following on from the Talk Talk closure announcement, I directed that a report be prepared to investigate the particular issues affecting Waterford City and its hinterland and to outline a list of actions to be taken over the short and medium/long term to seek to address those issues. I launched the South East Employment Action Plan, which contains specific actions to address the specific unemployment problems affecting the South East, on 2nd December last and it is my intention to meet regularly with a forum representing the agencies and stakeholders to progress the implementation of the Plan.
The reality is that the structural challenges that the South East region faces have built up over many years and will not be reversed with a simple set of actions. What is required is to build a stronger enterprise base in the region as a whole. The Action Plan identifies many actions that can help deliver on that ambition of having a stronger local enterprise base, but this will achieve only so much. There are challenges for all agencies in the region to help build up the region's competitive advantage and then to promote it in a coordinated manner. In fact, one of the key issues that no single agency or Government Department can hope to address is the issue of the overall coherence of the region's "value proposition" to investors from home or abroad. What has arisen again and again in consultation with all the relevant stakeholders and agencies in the region is the need for greater co-ordination of effort from all those with an interest in improving the enterprise potential of the region.
In the case of IDA site visits, a company is generally shown three or four locations within a Gateway Economic Region that can meet its requirements. The South East Employment Action Plan includes a commitment by the agencies to assign a clear priority to the South East region. In selecting locations to market to client companies, IDA Ireland will endeavour to include locations which have been affected by closures/job losses. Whilst IDA Ireland seeks to influence the selection of a location, the final decision on where to visit and where to locate is taken in all cases by the investor. Meanwhile, we must not lose sight of the fact that at present there are 31 IDA Ireland client companies employing 5,196 people in Waterford city and county.
