This article is from page 5 of the 2006-09-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 5 JPG
MINISTER for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin has decided not to implement his controversial plan to allow the IDA take over the Shannon Free Zone mandate from Shannon Development.
While the Minister has ordered that foreign investment in the region will remain the remit of Shannon Development, he is to order that the company’s indigenous mandate will become the responsibility of Enterprise Ireland from January 1.
More than 50 staff will also have to transfer from the development agency to Enterprise Ireland.
In a letter to the chairman of Shannon Development, Minister Martin wrote, “It is intended that this transfer will be affected by way of ministerial designation of the staff concerned.”
He told the chairman that the necessary legislation to enact this would come before the next session of the Dáil.
The 50 or more staff moving from Shannon Development to EI will make up the first phase of the decentralisation of Enterprise Ireland to Shannon. The second phase of decentralisation will be made up of Enterprise Ireland staff already working in the Shannon region, while the third phase will include the 40 staff who expressed an interest in moving to the town.
Minister of State with responsibilities for Labour Affairs, Tony Killeen told The Clare People , “Minister Martin said it would have been impossible to deliver Enterprise Ireland to Shannon in any meaningful way if the agency did not have any responsibility for this region as well as the rest of the country.”
The Clare junior minister said he was also pleased that a new national headquarters for the Enterprise Board was to be set up in Shannon.
Meanwhile, Minister Martin said he no longer intended to transfer Shannon Development’s mandate on foreign investment to the IDA.
Instead he said the development company would have the use of the IDA’s offices and contacts under a protocol yet to be decided.
“I am pleased that we have been able to persuade my colleague that Shannon Development is capable of making a positive contribution in the free zone,” said Minister Killeen.
Just over 13 months ago, Minister Martin announced that the IDA would take over the Shannon Free Zone.