Minister defends governments job record
Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton has defended the government’s record on supporting employment in County Cavan, despite figures showing just one IDA-sponsored visit last year and a net gain of just one job created by locally-based IDA-supported companies.
His comments came following Lakeland Dairies’ announcement that it is to create 81 new jobs over the next three years, with a further 180 to be employed in the construction phase while expanding its milk powder production plant in Bailieborough.
The Minister also used the opportunity to refer to the Government's 2015 Action Plan for Jobs and a number of Regional Enterprise Strategies to be developed - the first of which for the midlands region was launched today.
The Minister’s visit to Bailieborough is the third regionally in a month, having previously dealt with contrasting fortunes in neighbouring Monaghan at the loss of 140 jobs at Bose, Carrickmacross, and news that Combilift is to create up to 400 jobs by building an new €40m factory near Monaghan Town.
The Minister was keen to point out that while foreign direct investment may be scarce, economic recovery and development is being led locally by indigenous companies.
“I think Cavan and Monaghan have great bedrock skills in food and engineering and it’s great to see the confidence that’s there. Both Lakeland and Combilift have the ambition to grow with this expansion, but again grow beyond that. They see themselves as truly global players...
“It’s fantastic commitment and it’s the sort of thing we’re trying to drive, what you might call the 'indigenous engine of growth’ to drive our regions forward, and this is what we will build off ourselves in our new Regional Enterprise Strategy, which we will roll out during the course of this year.”
Part of the 2015 Action Plan for Jobs, these Regional Enterprise Strategies, the government say, are aimed at supporting enterprise growth and job creation in every region of the country.
The first two Regional Enterprise Strategies to be developed will cover the Midlands and the South East regions respectively; while Cavan and Monaghan have been included in the Border Region, alongside Donegal, Louth, Sligo and Leitrim, where more than one in ten are unemployed.
There has been a net loss of 113 jobs at IDA-supported companies in Cavan since 2008, compared with 159 in Monaghan for that same period. A similar trend has occurred at the Enterprise Ireland supported companies in Cavan, where there has been a net loss of 784 jobs, with a drop of 872 jobs in Monaghan.
Despite this, Minister Bruton is confident the forthcoming Regional Enterprise Strategies can genuinely affect economic recovery.
“We’re on a difficult journey. There was a 60% loss in the number of jobs in construction, nearly 2,500 people in Cavan alone were displaced from that sector alone and that had a massive impact on the local economy.
“We have to rebuild that on companies who are exporting globally, building on a solid sustainable base of skills. We’re seeing that with the likes of Combilift.
“But we can’t change the numbers overnight,” he said, referring to the estimated 20% drop in Live Register figures in Cavan compared to the same time in 2012.
“We’re heading in the right direction but there is a lot more to do and that’s why we will make commitments to that in our new Regional Enterprise Strategy.
“It is a transition story. IDA will be producing their new five-year strategy. It will have a far greater focus on the regions as well in which they’ll seek to increase the number of investments in regions by about 40%. They will be look at each region individually, the strengths and how to build that out.”