LIMERICK Fianna Fáil TD Niall Collins has asked Jobs Minister Frances Fitzgerald to brief the Joint Committee on Business, Enterprise and Innovation on direct threats to foreign direct investment and jobs growth.
Deputy Collins, who is party spokesman on jobs, enterprise and innovation, said that domestic policy decisions were undermining job creation initiatives and this should be addressed by Minister Fitzgerald and Industrial Development Authority chief executive Martin Shanahan
“I have written to the Committee Clerk to request an urgent meeting on this issue. Due to domestic policy decisions, the housing crisis and the current planning process system are making Ireland an uncompetitive jurisdiction for retaining our current FDI footprint and attracting new investment.
“The recently published report ‘Growing Great Teams in Ireland: The Role of the Residential Rental Sector’ by the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland clearly illustrates how severe housing shortages could harm Ireland’s competitiveness and stymie future efforts to attract FDI to Ireland, Deputy Collins explained.
“The report says that more than 30,000 new one and two bedroom rental properties will be needed in Dublin by 2022 to meet housing demand for new jobs created by FDI investment. The Minster and IDA must outline the government response to this from a jobs growth perspective.
“Meanwhile, the long running saga to get planning approval for the €850m Apple data centre in Athenry is very concerning and it seems we may have missed the boat with the company deciding to proceed to build a second data centre in Denmark. The people of Athenry, Galway and beyond will have been let down if this project is lost.
“The head of the IDA and Minister Fitzgerald must immediately attend the Committee on Business, Enterprise and Innovation to update members on discussions the Department and agency have had in this regard and ensure current policy does not deter future investment for such projects,” he concluded.
