IDA jobs plan snubs Kerry again
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Wednesday March 10 2010
IN spite of surging unemployment figures, the IDA has once again ignored Kerry and omitted the county from it's latest national investment programme.
In the same week that Kerry's unemployment figures reached an all time high of 16,993, the IDA launched its ambitious Horizon 2020 document, which outlines the agency's priorities for ending recession and attracting foreign investment between now and 2014. But despite the stark jobs crisis facing Kerry, the county is all but omitted from the IDA plan.
The IDA plan is supposed to target unemployment blackspots and is meant to create 105,000 new jobs through foreign investment in the next five years.
This does not mean there will be an even distribution of new jobs and counties Limerick, Waterford, Sligo and Donegal have been given priority according to Tanasite and Enterprise Minister Mary Coughlan who launched the plan.
However, both Waterford and Sligo have significantly lower live register tallies than Kerry, while Donegal has only slightly more on its register. The entire county of Sligo in fact has less unemployed than Tralee town.
Despite this, it looks increasing unlikely that any new IDA-back jobs will be created in Kerry, which was ignored while the other, more politically sensitive counties received priority.
Kerry is now among the counties suffering most from the escalating unemployment that is crippling the country. A total of 16,993 people were on the dole in the county last month with Tralee and Listowel accounting for more than half that figure.
North Kerry Fine Gael Deputy Jimmy Deenihan said he wasn't surprised by Kerry's omission from the IDA masterplan.
" This shows clearly that Kerry is not a priority for the IDA and it hasn't been on the IDA's agenda for a number of years," he said. " There has been little or no effort on the part of the IDA to secure Kerry any form of preferential treatment in recent years."
Deputy Deenihan said this was clearly borne out by the contrast in the number of companies the IDA has brought to Cork compared with Kerry since 2003.
The agency's official report for 2009 shows the IDA did not create any jobs in Kerry in the last 12 months while IDA supported companies in the county shed more than 500 jobs.
The IDA said it does all it can to attract investment into Kerry but the decision is ultimately down to the individual businesses and Kerry's infrastructure does not suit the needs of many potential investors.
- SIMON BROUDER sbrouder@kerryman.ie
