This article is from page 15 of the 2008-07-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 15 JPG
THE high number of foreign compa- nies visiting the Shannon Free Zone with a view to investing there has failed to prevent a steady decline in jobs over the past four years.
Figures released by the Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Coughlan, yesterday show that overall 251 jobs have been lost in the zone.
In 2007, the zone suffered a net loss of 131 jobs. This trend is set to con- tinue this year with yesterday’s con- firmation that Avocent International is to shed 64 jobs.
Last year Shannon Development brought 14 potential investors to visit the free zone. In contrast IDA at- tracted only three.
Shannon Development’s tally is up three from that in 2006. However, it is down on the 22 potential investors that visited the zone in 2005 and the 17 who visited in 2004.
In the years 2003 to 2007, potential investors made some 88 “business itineraries’. In the same period, the number of IDA itineraries in Clare was 16.
The figures show that the worst year for redundancies in the free zone was 2005 when 739 jobs were lost, while 485 jobs were lost last year.
The figures show that 354 jobs were created in the zone last year.
Shannon Development is due to shortly publish its masterplan in re- lation to a revamped Shannon Free Zone. Clir Brian Meaney (GP) said that the agency needed to be creative and innovative.
‘High labour costs are resulting in companies relocating jobs overseas and Shannon Development needs to create the spirit of the 1960s with the establishment of the Free Zone and other innovative ideas.
“The figures also confirm that it would have been the height of folly by the Government to withdraw the responsibility for promoting the free zone from Shannon Development and giving it to the IDA.
“The figures show that the IDA doesn’t have any real interest in pro- moting industry in rural Clare or in Ennis and the number of itineraries brought by Shannon Development to the Free Zone in recent years points up the poor IDA performance in Clare,’ Cllr Meaney concluded.
A recent county by county survey confirmed that Clare came 19th of the 26 counties in IDA jobs created for 2007. The figures supplied by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment show that 22 jobs were created in IDA companies last year.