The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
AT Friday’s West Clare Municipal District meeting Councillors Ian Lynch and Cillian Murphy requested that the Council set up a Designated Activity Company to deliver the Maritime Training Centre in Kilrush.
However it emerged at the meeting that such a company is already in place, having been established in 2018 as part of an application for funding, and an allocation of resources has been assigned for a business manager.
The project has been awarded almost €3.5m in Rural Regeneration Development funding, with €700,000 match funding from the county council.
Speaking afterwards Councillor Murphy said that it’s time the company became active and the over €5 million allocated in funding be used.
“There is a necessity now for this to be taken off the shelf and activated. It is sitting there as a shell company but now it needs to be activated and directors taken on board.
“There was an Enterprise Ireland grant of €1.7 million and somewhere in the order of €400,000 is for a business development officer.
“That has been sitting in the bank effectively and what we’re saying is that it’s time that money was drawn down to take on the business development officer.”
He said that the Ennis 2040 DAC is very active and the Kilrush project can follow that template. “We were making the comparison with the benefits to Ennis 2040 with Kevin Corrigan in place doing the job.
“We’re saying there’s now €3.5 million from the RRDF, there was €1.7 million from Enterprise Ireland, that’s €5.2 million for this project.
“What we need now is to activate the resource, put an Operations Officer in place for the DAC and it’d be their job to go out and say we’re going to work towards sourcing development funding, trying to put in place partners for the project.”
He said there have been expressions of interest from companies interested in taking on operational control of the facility after it is built, and he says the project can make a huge difference to West Clare.
“There is huge urgency now and given what’s coming down the track we need to make this happen ASAP.
“When you look at the other RRDFs that have been funded the outputs are more spread out across the community, you’re relying on secondary services to develop around these projects.
“Take Loop Head lighthouse, take Vandeleur, you are hoping they will drive economic benefit in the wider community as opposed to being huge generators of income in their own right.
“But the Maritime Training Centre will be delivering training and certification for anyone in the country who needs to access what’s effectively a marine safe pass,” Councillor Murphy noted.
“Anyone who wants to work on the top of a pier, work on a barge, work on an oil rig, a cruise ship, if you want to work at Moneypoint and take stuff off the jetty, you need a marine safe pass.
“At the moment all of this is being delivered by the Maritime Training College in Cork, and all of these certifications have to be delivered every year.
“We’re in the space here of delivering a huge number of people through the building that will be paying handsomely to do the certification. It’s not done in a morning, they’ll have to stay, they’ll have to eat, have a few pints, all of that.”
He said that with a major offshore wind project coming relatively soon at Moneypoint, it’s imperative that the training facility be in place quickly.
“This is a complete game changer and it will almost immediately deliver. The day the door opens there will be 20 to 30 jobs and it will start delivering revenue,” he added.
Councillor Lynch agreed that its time to make tangible progress.
“Now the funding has been allocated, we want to see the DAC activated. We didn’t realise it was part of the original application, we want it opened up and local interests involved. There’s €1.7 million from Enterprise Ireland there and now’s the time to fill positions, look for partners and get bodies on the ground.”
Owen Ryan
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked for a number of other regional titles in Limerick, Galway and Cork.
