This article is from page 17 of the 2006-10-31 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 17 JPG
FURTHER doubt was cast on Enterprise Ireland relocating 400 jobs to Shannon this week with Enterprise Minister, Michael Martin conceding that it wasn’t possible to say when the decentralisation will take place.
Last February, Minister Martin said Shannon Development would sell a prime 13-acre town centre site for Enterprise Ireland’s new Shannon headquarters. However, in his latest Dail response, Minister Martin admits that no progress has been made on relocating Enterprise Ireland to Shannon.
To date, only 19 existing employees at Enterprise Ireland have indicated their willingness to transfer to Shannon, while an additional 33 public servants have also expressed an interest to move to Shannon, giving a total of 52.
In his Dáil statement last week, Minister Martin said: “It is not possible, at this stage, to say with certainty when the full move of Enterprise Ireland’s headquarters will take place”.
“The agency’s regional development headquarters will be established in Shannon as well as a new unit to work with city and county enterprise boards. It is intended that these will be operational in Shannon by mid-2007”.
“The functions hitherto carried out by Shannon Development under delegated authority from Enterprise Ireland will revert to Enterprise Ireland on January 1, 2007. The transfer of functions will also involve the transfer of a number of staff from Shannon Development to Enterprise Ireland”, he said.