COMMENT: Limerick is tired of the waiting game on action over jobs
THE IDA this Wednesday announced far more new jobs for Galway – 200, with gaming company EA – than have been created in Limerick and Shannon in the 16 months since Dell quit manufacturing in Raheen.
The Government has pledged that Limerick is now being afforded "the highest priority" for inward investment but this has yet to translate into anything more than a handful of jobs in the Mid-West.
Ironically, it was Dell itself that was the subject of the only good news from the IDA over that period, with the computer giant announcing it was hiring 50 new people in Limerick.
During the same period, there have been 14 announcements by IDA-backed firms in Cork and seven in Galway. On the jobs front, Limerick has done about as well as Sligo and Leitrim, but not as well as Louth or Donegal.
This is not to make a parochial point. The University of Limerick and NUI Galway are already collaborating on projects and the cities should also co-operate rather than compete with Cork as part of the much spoken of but not yet seen "Atlantic Economic Corridor".
The point is that the IDA is, according to the Government, affording Limerick the "highest priority" in job creation. But the 22,000 people on the live register in Limerick city and county are yet to see the fruits of these efforts. In a recent interview with this newspaper, Shannon Development's Eoghan Prendergast said he was unaware of any major jobs announcements for Limerick coming down the track.
Bringing international captains of industry here for site visits and persuading them to commit to a multimillion investment takes time. But we must believe Mid West Jobs Task Force chairman Denis Brosnan when he says the IDA are at least working on it.
After Mary Coughlan and Batt O'Keeffe's job swap at Cabinet, Cork – already doing well out of the IDA – now has its second Minister for Enterprise inside two years. In the halcyon days of the Celtic Tiger, Micheal Martin earned himself the title, The Minister for Jobs and Cork. CSO statistics now confirm what Denis Brosnan predicted, that Limerick and the MidWest have among the highest rates of unemployment in the country. We must now hope that Batt O'Keeffe is more global in his outlook.
We are told that nowhere has "higher priority" but if Minister O'Keeffe has specific plans in mind for the critical jobs situation in Limerick, there was no sign of them during his dis-spiriting encounter with our report Nick Rabbitts during the week.
It was back in November 2009 when Denis Brosnan first warned the task force's work would be "a waste of time" if the Government didn't set about acting on its interim recommendations.
Almost three months into his new role and Minister O'Keeffe still hasn't even met Mr Brosnan.
"Since I came in, one week has been spent in the United States, one week was spent in Australia on a trade mission, another was spent dealing with the Quinn crisis. I will be dealing with this as soon as I can get my feet under the table," the Minister said.
He went on to make the extraordinary admission that the Government might not be able to take any concrete action in the Mid-West until after the budget in December, more than a year after Mr Brosnan first voiced his disquiet.
If this is the Minister's idea of "prioritising" Limerick, we may have to endure more of the self-serving guff that characterised Mary Coughlan's time in the job.
Denis Brosnan must be horrified at the admission. Given the disgracefully sluggish response to the task force recommendations, it's a small wonder he took on the role of chairing the Limerick Local Government Committee at all. This is another job of work that is of critical importance to this region and Mr Brosnan might well fear for whatever recommendations his committee makes – unless he recommends they do nothing, which is their forte.
Last year, a jobs strategy for Limerick had to wait until the banking crisis was resolved. This year, it will seemingly have to wait until after the budget. Next year may bring a fresh excuse, but Limerick is tired of the waiting game.
Ministers could easily start advancing the jobs-intensive projects that will raise revenue for the region, keep a roof over homeowners heads and prevent local businesses going to the wall. Housebuilding under Limerick Regeneration, the gas terminal at Ballylongford and the Lynxs cargo terminal at Shannon Airport are just three projects Ministers O'Keeffe, Gormley and Dempsey can get on with.
Otherwise, the voters of Limerick will be doing some "prioritising" of their own at the next election.
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