Meath needs to shout louder for inward investment

The past couple of months have brought much good news on the employment front with IDA-backed foreign direct investments (FDI) set to bring thousands of new jobs to different areas of the country. The biggest of these has been PayPal's investment in Dundalk which will give employment to 1,000, but several other projects announced since the start of 2012 will also bring a boost to the regions in which they are to be located. BSkyB announced 800 jobs in Dublin in its new customer service centre, HP is to bring almost 300 new roles to its centres in Galway and Kildare, Abbott in Sligo is to invest €85m creating employment for 175, while Eli Lilly in Kinsale, Co Cork, just this week announced 200 further posts at its plant there. The IDA is clearly winning market share in a fiercely competitive global space right now as it competes with many other countries' inward investment agencies to win jobs, including lower-cost economies in eastern Europe and Asia. However, Ireland still clearly has a lot to offer potential investors, such as the quality of the country's talent pool, an increasingly competitive business environment, the fact that we are the only English-speaking country in the eurozone and our low corporation tax regime. However, the lesson of PayPal and its decision to pass on locating in Navan needs to serve as a wake-up call to those tasked with inward investment and job creation in this county. The giant US electronic payments firm, which is affiliated to eBay, had examined the suitability of the former Quinn Insurance building at Navan's IDA Business Park but ruled it out, reportedly because of a "shortage of a skilled workforce" locally and Navan's proximity to its Blanchardstown operation. There have been calls for a meeting with Minister for Jobs and Enterprise Richard Bruton to discuss a jobs and funding strategy for County Meath amid questions as to why officials from Meath County Council had not met with PayPal to showcase the county town and why government TDs were not even aware that such a visit was taking place. A lynchpin of any local inward investment strategy must be that this area is positioned to attract at least some of the inward investment visits that are taking place to Ireland, but also to strongly pitch our strengths in terms of recent infrastructural investments like the M3 motorway. Instead of Meath's proximity to Dublin being a hindrance to investment, it needs to be seen as a major benefit with rapid access to Dublin Airport and Dublin Port. The fact that several strong international companies like Europ Assistance and Generali have already chosen to locate in Navan should act as a catalyst for further investment. Previously, when questioned about why Meath receives less job funding per capita than any other Leinster county even though it is comparable in size and population to places like Kildare and Wicklow, the IDA said that Meath did not have the infrastructure nor third-level facilities to attract major companies. While it may not have a third-level institution, the county has easy access to a multitude of them in Dublin and elsewhere, and it now does have a high-quality motorway bisecting the county which has cut travel times to the capital considerably. At the present time, there are some 16 IDA-supported companies in Meath, employing about 1,300 people. The IDA has set itself a target of 50 per cent of foreign direct investments based outside Dublin and Cork, and Meath needs to be out there pitching strongly for some of this business. Questions have already been raised on a number of occasions concerning the IDA's commitment to Meath, with only 16 company visits having taken place between 2006 and 2010, with 10 of these having occurred in 2006, and none at all in 2007 and 2010. Our local agencies must strongly re-engage with the IDA to ensure that every possible opportunity is availed of to channel FDI to this area so that Meath gets its fair share of the investments that are taking place across the country. On the domestic employment front, the New Frontiers national programme funded and co-ordinated by Enterprise Ireland and to be delivered locally by 13 Irish Institutes of Technology is designed to develop people into entrepreneurs by imparting the skills needed to move from business concept to reality. This will give people a chance to take their business ideas and make them happen. This is a welcome move to help nurture that entrepreneurial spirit needed by young people with good business ideas and it is hoped that 100 companies will be created out of this programme with an average of five jobs per company.