This article is from page 14 of the 2006-07-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
THE Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Michael Martin is due in Shannon this week to announce 350 new jobs for the Shannon Free Zone.
The visit by Minister Martin to Shannon on Thursday will be one year almost to the day since he announced his controversial new mandate to strip Shannon Development of its enterprise functions.
However, due to union opposition to Shannon Development losing control of the Free Zone, the new mandate has hit a major stumbling block and talks on clarifying the mandate continue.
The latest jobs coup by Shannon Development in securing the 350 jobs at Digital River has prompted Clare’s Fianna Fáil senators, Senator Brendan Daly and Senator Timmy Dooley to call for the agency’s new mandate to retain its promotion of the Shannon Free Zone.
The anticipated jobs announcement brings to over 600 the total of new jobs that have been announced for the Shannon Free Zone in the past month and Senator Timmy Dooley said that more jobs from another US company are on the way arising from negotiations with Shannon Development.
“The region would suffer if Shannon Development no longer had an enterprise role in the Shannon Free Zone.
“It has the skills base and the focus to ensure that the Free Zone continues to secure high tech jobs,” said Senator Dooley.
Senator Brendan Daly said that he raised the issue of Shannon Development’s future role at a recent Fianna Fail parliamentary meeting with Minister Martin, at which Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was also in attendance.
“Since 1959, Shannon Development has been very successful in promoting the region and the Shannon Free Zone and in my opinion, it was unwise to change the existing mandate,” said Senator Daly.
A Shannon Development workers representative said yesterday: “It has been a record year for the Shannon Free Zone. There will be a big political fall-out if amendments aren’t made to the mandate.
“We believe that the minister was walked into this with bad information provided by his civil servants. He is a political realist and a practical man and we believe he will make some amendments to the mandate.”