IDA delivers just one Clare industry in five years

JUST one of the 42 IDA-assisted foreign direct investment greenfield projects announced nationally in the past five years came to Clare, while unemployment among young people is now at 30% in the Mid-West, according to figures revealed this week.

In February 2008, the IDA announced that Zimmer Medical Technology would be creating 250 jobs for Shannon. Since then it has been almost all bad news and over the past five years, the only other IDA-assisted projects to come to the region were when Channel Advisor announced the creation of 15 jobs in the Limerick Business Development Centre and DTS announced 50 jobs in their Limerick headquarters. Both of these announcements came in 2008.
Deputy Pat Breen claims the Government has let the region down and recent unemployment figures don’t help the cause.
As many as 30% of the region’s young people are out of work. Nearly 40% of men between 15 and 24 years and more than 18% of women in the Mid-West are unemployed in the Mid-West, according to the latest figures from IBEC.
“The lack of IDA job creation projects announced over the past five years is a sad indictment of this Government’s failure to prioritise this region for job creation, in spite of all the warnings they have received.
“The Live Register figures at the end of March show than on an annual basis, the number of people on the Live Register has risen by almost 18% with the Mid-West Region incurring the biggest increase at more than 20%,” he said.
Last month there were nearly 40,000 people signing on in the Mid-West region, 10,633 of these were in Clare.
“In the middle of last year, Denis Brosnan and the Mid-West Jobs Taskforce completed its work on their interim report and put forward several recommendations, which included the call on the IDA to prioritise this region for FDI projects, yet no action has been taken to progress these recommendations in the interim.”
He said there is a need for focus on regional balance.
“Earlier this year, the IDA outlined ambitions targets for delivering Foreign Direct Investment in their Horizon 2020 plan, which included a commitment to refocus efforts on balanced regional development by committing 50% of investments to areas outside of Dublin and Cork. I want to see the IDA deliver on this commitment now and I also want to see County Clare prioritised as a location for FDI investment,” he said.
IBEC, this week also announced details of a scheme aimed at graduates allowing them to do work experience with employers without losing their social welfare benefits. It said it had a wide range of work experience opportunities available through its GradLink programme and that companies in the Mid-West and across the country are looking for graduates from a wide range of degrees.  
Approximately 60,000 graduates completed their studies in 2009, and while some of these will return to education, a significant number are seeking employment.
IBEC Mid-West regional director, Chris O’Donovan said, “The lack of work opportunities for recent graduates in the region is a major concern. A significant number are now unemployed and unable to put into practice the skills they have developed throughout their years of training and education. Unfortunately, many see emigration as the only way by which they will be able to get employment in their area of interest.”
Meanwhile, school leavers in the region are being urged to be positive in the face of the jobs crisis gripping the country.
“The first thing I would say to people is that the majority of people who are applying to college this year will take three to four years before they are going into the workplace if they are doing degrees. Hopefully, we will be well out of this recession by then,” Limerick career guidance counsellor and public relations officer for the Institute of Guidance Counsellors Michael Gleeson told The Clare Champion.
According to Michael those leaving school are not worried about high unemployment just yet but are concerned about points because of the increased numbers applying to colleges.
“There was a 6.5% increase in the number of applicants in February to the CAO so there will be more competition for places. The number of people going for arts is up by about 10% to 11%, the people applying for science is up about 8%, the number applying for business and administration courses are up by 3.5%. People are opting for generic courses with a view to specialising down the road,” he outlined.
Michael also pointed out that there has been a drop in the number of applications to built environment courses as a direct result of the collapse in the property market but a rise in the popularity of energy-related qualifications. He said competition will be tougher than ever this year for college courses. However he added that one difference between now and the 1980s is that there are more college courses to choose from now. Facing the current economic climate as a college leaver, he acknowledged isn’t easy and advised those concluding undergraduate courses to consider postgraduate courses.
“A number of those coming out of college are using their skills in other parts of the world like Australia and Canada particularly. I would say while emigration is not for everyone, technology through the Internet and mobile phones and Facebook mean the world is a smaller place than it was in the 1980s,” he concluded.