IDA – Only 3 Visits to Kerry in 2012 & 2013
A report in the Examiner on the 18th Jan 2014 , slated the IDA for neglecting counties outside of city centres locations. Kerry received just three visits to the county over two years (2012 & 2013) by potential investors lead by the IDA.
According to the Irish Examiners report, this compares to a total of 376 visits to Dublin 69 to Cork and 53 to Limerick over the two years. The IDA generated 1,979 jobs in Cork in 2012, in Kerry the figure was 74.
This is a scandalous figure, the people and especially the youth of Kerry deserve better. While I acknowledge that the IDA has brought good businesses to Kerry in the past, they have failed the County in recent years.
The Fine Gael Minister for Enterprise, Richard Bruton Bruton, has indicated that that the IDA prioritises gateway locations in the regions,
“The Agency prioritises the marketing of its Gateway locations within each Region e.g. the Gateways in the Mid-West and South West Regions which include Limerick and Cork as the locations of critical mass.”.
Perhaps there’s an argument for a county based initiative backed by the County Council that would utilise the international contacts of the diaspora, local business people & indeed contacts made by Councillors on foreign visits to encourage foreign business locate in Kerry.
We have great assets in this County, so lets’ start selling ourselves, – we can do a better job that the IDA.
