THE announcement of a number of key infrastructural plans and multi million euro investments in Limerick will address the lack of Grade A office space available to attract in large FDI companies, the regional IDA boss has said.
With just one floor of office space available in the city, IDA regional business development manager, Niall O’Callaghan has however stated that a realisation within the next 12 months of key plans within Limerick city will allow the State agency take advantage of more FDI opportunities.
“It’s of concern right now in that we don’t have the opportunities to take advantage of if there was office space available, but since last May we in Limerick have had confirmation of the delivery of the Hanging Gardens, City East Plaza has started to be developed and Bishop’s Quay looks like it will go to planning in the coming weeks.
“This is really good news and the plan has significantly improved and that will allow us go to FDI clients and court them for inward investment.
“When they (Grade A office space) are delivered and when they do come on-stream in 12 to 18 months time, then it will be a significant opportunity to take advantage.
As the process to court companies into locating within the region and Limerick city takes a significant period of time, Mr O’Callaghan said that once planning process is flushed out “the IDA would absolutely share what is available (in Limerick) with our overseas teams and make sure that any of our client companies who are looking at regionally locating in Ireland will have a visual of what that project will look like.”
Welcoming the 2030 plans, the IDA regional boss said that “anything in Limerick which is going to help us attract foreign direct investment companies, but also make Limerick as an attractive location to live and work, we very much welcome.
“This is a huge step in the right direction for the city.
“When the plans at the Opera Site and the Cleeves factory come to fruition, it will be a huge selling point for us in the IDA and assist in creating a counter balance to what is happening on the East coast.
“For the first time in our history, the IDA are delivering half of all projects outside of Dublin so that is a milestone for us in our regional strategy so we are very keen to keep on pushing that agenda
Regarding job creation outside of the Greater Dublin Area, Mr O’Callaghan said that while Limerick has 4.4 per cent of the population, it has 8.8 per cent of all IDA Foreign Direct Investment client companies, “so we are punching well above our weight by double here in Limerick.
Our regional targets are a second thing to note. So we have a target between 2015 and 2019, of 30 to 40 percent increase in investments in the Mid West Region and as near as this June, we hit 33 per cent so we are one third of the way towards our four year target strategy and we are bang on target to deliver on that.
“Be the end of that strategy period we will have delivered between 30 and 40 per cent growth of investments in the region than the previous five years.
However, Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Jobs and Enterprise, Niall Collins TD says the 2015 county breakdown on IDA Ireland job figures debunks the Government’s claim that it is spreading FDI jobs fairly across the whole country.
“In a recent Parliamentary Question reply that I received from Minister Mitchell O’Connor, the county by county data shows that of the 187,056 persons employed in IDA supported companies in 2015, shockingly 18 counties, nearly 70% of the state, accounted for less than 2% of total jobs.”
“Foreign Direct Investment acts as a significant engine in the Irish economy by providing highly skilled jobs and indirect employment to local domestic businesses nationwide.”
“In turn FDI companies, support secondary, indigenous companies located in, and around, FDI businesses. The work of the IDA is to be applauded for continuing to attract FDI to Ireland.”
“Despite this, the annual regional figures over 2012-2015 clearly reveal a consistent pattern. Under a Fine Gael led government, almost 50 per cent of all IDA supported jobs over this period were concentrated in the Greater Dublin Area (GDA).”
Deputy Collins called for Minister for jobs and enterprise to immediately prioritise FDI-investment in counties outside the Greater Dublin Area.”
