This article is from page 9 of the 2006-09-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 9 JPG
THE Government’s indecisiveness and ultimate U-turn during the past week on the enterprise role of Shannon Development in the Shannon Free Zone, has wasted potential enterprise creation for Clare.
That is the feeling being expressed by Clare Fine Gael Deputy Pat Breen, following the revelation in last week’s edition of The Clare People that the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Michael Martin, had decided not to implement his controversial plan to allow the IDA take over the foreign enterprise mandate in the Shannon Free Zone from the development agency.
However, the Minister informed Shannon Development that its indigenous industry mandate would move to Enterprise Ireland.
According to Deputy Breen, “the whole fiasco illustrates that there is no overall policy for employment creation and balanced regional development. The original decision was made in July 2005, amid widespread criticism. Now 15 months of potential enterprise-creation have been wasted with this Government shilly-shallying and there is a glaring gap on Minister Martin’s Web site where this new announcement should be,” said Deputy Breen.
“The original decision to strip Shannon Development of its enterprise creation functions was made under the cover of ‘an enhanced regional economic development role’ for the agency.
Minister Martin also stated that ‘Shannon Development supports this recommendation and it will be implemented as soon as practicable.’
“Not only has the recommendation not been implemented at all, but it has taken well over a year to arrive back at where we started,” he added.