Government ‘inaction’ on task force plan

CLARE Minister of State and one-time champion of Shannon Airport, Tony Killeen and his Fianna Fáil constituency colleague, Deputy Timmy Dooley have been challenged to consider resigning their party whip in protest against Government inaction on the Mid-West Task Force action plan.

The task force is “not getting anywhere or going anywhere” and frustration and near dejection has set in so much that the group even thought about giving up on their mission before Christmas, according to chairman Denis Brosnan. The task force was set up last year in response to the announcement of major job losses at Dell in Limerick and other companies in Shannon and other parts of the region.
With a Dáil debate on the Mid-West Task Force scheduled for this Thursday, Mr Brosnan painted a very bleak picture of a region in crisis at a briefing session at the Strand Hotel, Limerick, on Friday last. While he urged Oireachtas members who attended the briefing not to make political capital out of the region’s ills, Opposition deputies were quick to capitalise on the opening for denouncing the Government.
Clare Fine Gael TD Joe Carey declared himself “shocked and appalled” by what he heard.
“The region is in a worse state than anyone could have predicted,” he stated. Government inaction has made the task force and its report “a purely cosmetic exercise”, Deputy Carey said, adding that the two Clare Fianna Fáil TDs, “should consider withdrawing support from Government in protest against “the disinterest displayed by Government towards the region and the work of the task force”.
Pointing out that elements of the recovery programme mapped out by the task force would not place undue pressure on government finances, Deputy Carey picked out the Lynx cargo hub proposal for the airport as an initiative that would generate immediate employment as well as add considerably to airport business and international status.
Labour TD for Limerick East, Jan O’Sullivan joined the condemnation of Government inaction but also hit out at the Dublin Airport Authority, which continues to hold sway on Shannon decision making five years after the airport was supposed to be granted independence.
The Labour front bench spokesperson accused the Dublin Airport Authority of “slowly strangling Shannon Airport” and leaving its subsidiary Shannon Airport Authority in a position of “having to manage with one arm tied behind its back”.
Last week’s briefing by Mr Brosnan was chilling in its assessment of the deteriorating economic wellbeing of the Mid West.
The pillars that made the region the envy of the rest of the country – overseas investment, tourism, Shannon Airport and job generation – are all under severe strain with nothing in sight to suggest that the meltdown can be halted, Mr Brosnan told his audience.
“It’s not working” was the verdict from Mr Brosnan, who has a proven track record as one of the country’s leading business men. He made his name as the man who grew Kerry Co-op from a small dairy into a multi-million euro international food industry group.
Mr Brosnan stated in unequivocal terms that the Mid-West Task Force is “not getting anywhere or going anywhere. What’s more the State agencies working within the task force also know that the structures that they operate in are not working and are unlikely to work in the future”.
Frustration and near dejection has set in so much that the task force even thought about giving up on their mission before Christmas, the chairman confessed. With little or no positive response to the 20 priority pointers set out in their interim report of last July, “for the task force and for me it would have been a waste of time to move to the second stage. Why start the second stage if nobody has any interest in the first stage?” the chairman asserted
Mr Brosnan referred to 2009 as being an awful year for tourism, a terrible year for Shannon Airport and “the same story” in terms of the slide in employment in job creation.
Noting that 2010 offers no let up on any front, he warned, “Doing nothing is not an option.” Unless there is drastic and urgent action and the way it cleared by Government for action to be taken, “we will have a very depressed place in which to live and work”. Otherwise the prospects for the Mid-West came down to “a generation of unemployment or encourage those coming into the workforce to emigrate”.