THE IDA has not provided any support to Natus Medical Incorporated in the development of a new Gort distribution centre
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That was the claim made by Sean Langan, senior director of European operations for the company, when he spoke to The Clare Champion, following a sod-turning ceremony this week.
“If anything, we’ve been hindered by them and slowed down by them,” he said.
The company currently employ 125 people and Mr Langan said it is hoped to increase this to 200 before long.
“The construction of the distribution centre will be finished in November of this year. We hope to open the building, probably in December of this year and begin to use it in January of 2019. There will be 25 positions initially in the warehouse but the target for the facility would be to bring it up to 200 people over time.”
The initial 25 jobs will be in areas like distribution and customer services, with other high skilled positions to be added over time. Returning to his annoyance with the IDA, he added, “This is a major investment in a rural part of Galway as opposed to the city. Rural parts of Galway need more support from the likes of the IDA but we’re just not getting it. The big brands and city locations, the FDI team in the IDA are all over them. My message this morning was where are the IDA in terms of supporting rural investment? We’re a $500 million company and where are the IDA in terms of supporting these type of businesses in rural parts of Ireland?”
He said he had spoken to local TD Sean Canney about the IDA on Wednesday, while he questioned if the agency are supporting projects outside of cities.
“As it stands right now, the IDA has not supported this project at all. We need to understand is it because we’re in rural Ireland, is it because we are not in the city, is it because we are not one of the top 12 big brands that everyone keeps talking about. Certainly they should be supporting four to five million dollar investments in rural parts of Ireland. It’s pretty significant, as is trying to build a workforce of up to 200 in a rural part of Galway.”
By Owen Ryan
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.