M18 - SIAC boss has a go at Dempsey at opening

jd

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/sparks-fly-as-construction-chief-crosses-swords-with-dempsey-2418484.html

The row broke out after Mr Leyden used his speech to attack Government capital spending plans by saying "it is a sad reflection of the state of our economy that our working futures are abroad".

Mr Leyden urged the Government to scrap the planned Metro North project as the plan "is displacing other projects that have certainty of delivery and a more immediate impact on the economy and the construction industry".

Are Siac on the shortlist for any PPP's?

They aren't part of either consortium left in the running for the Dublin Metro. They didn't get the contract for the Tuam/Gort scheme starting in the new year.
They aren't part of either "BAM Balfour Beatty" or "GASTA roads", the two shortlisted tenderers for Arklow-Rathnew/Newlands X

Looks like they are throwing their toys out of the pram to me

Amtmann

From the same story:

Mr Dempsey accused Finn Leyden of SIAC Construction of making a "self-serving" speech at the opening of a by-pass of Gort in Co Galway.

A bit hypocritical of him. These overtly political opening ceremonies are the epitome of self serving if you ask me.

Mr Leyden was last in a succession of speakers to speak before Mr Dempsey and the Transport Minister put his prepared script aside to state that Mr Leyden's comments "are a little hard to take when you consider €13bn has been spent on road infrastructure in the last 10 years".

He said: "It is a little bit unrealistic to expect that we can spend another €13bn over the next 10 years providing roads that may not be needed."

The last bit is interesting. Why will they not be needed? Aren't the politicians telling us that the recession is temporary? Were the schemes ever necessary? And which schemes in particular is Dempsey talking about? That is the question.

murphaph

Furet wrote: »

A bit hypocritical of him. These overtly political opening ceremonies are the epitome of self serving if you ask me.
Amen!


The last bit is interesting. Why will they not be needed? Aren't the politicians telling us that the recession is temporary? Were the schemes ever necessary? And which schemes in particular is Dempsey talking about? That is the question.

I guess (in fairness to Dempsey, a man I despise) he was refering to the fact that at some point the spending focus has to turn away from roads and on to public transport (primarily in the greater Dublin region).

I would argue that the Republic of Ireland as a single entity would have been better spending on developing infrastructure IN the urban areas (primarily Dublin) ahead of the rest and indeed ahead of the motorway network which is more about "spreading the largesse around to the regions" than actually delivering infrastructure that will increase Ireland's GNP.

The motorways sre great. I love using them. The realist in me says that they should have been playing second fiddle to the above though.

dubhthach

murphaph wrote: »

I guess (in fairness to Dempsey, a man I despise) he was refering to the fact that at some point the spending focus has to turn away from roads and on to public transport (primarily in the greater Dublin region).

I would argue that the Republic of Ireland as a single entity would have been better spending on developing infrastructure IN the urban areas (primarily Dublin) ahead of the rest and indeed ahead of the motorway network which is more about "spreading the largesse around to the regions" than actually delivering infrastructure that will increase Ireland's GNP.

The motorways sre great. I love using them. The realist in me says that they should have been playing second fiddle to the above though.

Well I think we probably could have had both if they had designed the motorway network from scratch and not followed a policy of "Oh lets convert existing national routes into motorway routes". The motorway network could thus have been shorter/Cheaper and still serve the same terminal destinations as we currently have.

The problem often with development in Ireland was that Foreign Direct Investment was concentrated in Dublin. The reason been mainly due to transport and broadband. For example EBay was originaly shown a site in Athlone several years ago but they decided against it as there was no Motorway connection to Dublin and no hope of having one completed for a couple of years(section from Kilcock-Kinnegad was just about to start construction at this stage). As a result their HQ is in Blanchardstown.

Gryire

jd wrote: »

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/sparks-fly-as-construction-chief-crosses-swords-with-dempsey-2418484.html



Are Siac on the shortlist for any PPP's?

They aren't part of either consortium left in the running for the Dublin Metro. They didn't get the contract for the Tuam/Gort scheme starting in the new year.
They aren't part of either "BAM Balfour Beatty" or "GASTA roads", the two shortlisted tenderers for Arklow-Rathnew/Newlands X

Looks like they are throwing their toys out of the pram to me

In fariness, dempsy is a total tosspot. The point about 250 jobs gone at then end of these contracts don't make any headlines but they are as important as 250 jobs lost in any other company. The metro north project is total fantasy to keep the greens happy.

murphaph

dubhthach wrote: »

The problem often with development in Ireland was that Foreign Direct Investment was concentrated in Dublin. The reason been mainly due to transport and broadband. For example EBay was originaly shown a site in Athlone several years ago but they decided against it as there was no Motorway connection to Dublin and no hope of having one completed for a couple of years(section from Kilcock-Kinnegad was just about to start construction at this stage). As a result their HQ is in Blanchardstown.

You don't know what eBay's business reasons were for their choice of Blanchardstown.

Maybe they wanted to attract a large skilled workforce, knowing many would be from continental Europe, and they didn't think that Athlone (no offence to it or it's good citizens) would provide an attractive enough location, with enough things to do of a weekend.

dubhthach

murphaph wrote: »

You don't know what eBay's business reasons were for their choice of Blanchardstown.

Maybe they wanted to attract a large skilled workforce, knowing many would be from continental Europe, and they didn't think that Athlone (no offence to it or it's good citizens) would provide an attractive enough location, with enough things to do of a weekend.

Valid points, but the official excuse for rejecting the Athlone site that the IDA showed them was the road connectivity. No doubt they only ever wanted to be in Dublin but the IDA was encouraged to show them the site in Athlone due to political policy of spreading investments all over the place (it keeps the boys/girls in Teacht Laighin happy!)

luohaoran

murphaph wrote: »

You don't know what eBay's business reasons were for their choice of Blanchardstown.

Maybe they wanted to attract a large skilled workforce, knowing many would be from continental Europe, and they didn't think that Athlone (no offence to it or it's good citizens) would provide an attractive enough location, with enough things to do of a weekend.

Access to as broad a number of skilled workers, yes.
Nothing to do in Athlone at the weekend (and thus no reason to live there), that's an unfortunate opinion to propagate.

I've lived and worked in diverse locations in Ireland, Dublin was the most difficult place to find quality ways of spending my leisure time. I live rurally now, and haven't a minute to spare. But I wouldn't for a minute withhold investing in Dublin based on my own narrow opinion of where its best to live.

Thank goodness the current shower come from all over the country and at least attempt to look after the country as a whole. Rather than pursue policies that would encourage us all to huddle together in that urban sprawl on the East coast, just to get a job, any job.

Bring on Cork to Galway - 2 hours.

bk

I'm afraid luohaoran that murphaph is correct.

I work for a large US IT multinational myself and I can assure you that one of the primary reasons they all setup in Dublin is what murphaph outlined.

Speaking to recruiters, they tell me they have a difficult enough time convincing people to move to Dublin, when they are competing with London, Brussels, Zurich, Berlin, etc.

That isn't to say that there aren't things to do in rural areas, it just isn't attractive to young adventure seeking foreign graduates.

dubhthach

Just regarding Athlone was doing some reading back over the newspapers from 2003/2004. It would seem that originally the IDA would only show Ebay a site in Athlone if they wanted initial grants/funding for setup.

Seems Ebay went to the Táiniste (Mary Harney at the time), however Harney backed the IDA and as a result Ebay threatened to pull the plug on setting up in Ireland. As you can imagine the government and the IDA folded. The official reason put out by IDA for not setting up in Athlone was "Infrastructure" -- :rolleyes:

Sponge Bob

The bigger problem is that where a company 'ostensibly' sets up outside Dublin they don't actually do so. Amazon set up an operation at Cork Airport but it is only a call centre, the skilled jobs are in Dublin where some of the gear is or not in Ireland at all.

luohaoran

bk wrote: »

I'm afraid luohaoran that murphaph is correct.

I work for a large US IT multinational myself and I can assure you that one of the primary reasons they all setup in Dublin is what murphaph outlined.

Speaking to recruiters, they tell me they have a difficult enough time convincing people to move to Dublin, when they are competing with London, Brussels, Zurich, Berlin, etc.

That isn't to say that there aren't things to do in rural areas, it just isn't attractive to young adventure seeking foreign graduates.

Point taken.
It wasn't immediately obvious to me that a "large skilled workforce" meant "young adventure seeking graduates". And I guess recruiters have to deal with the misconceptions on the urban rural divide as their target audience requires.
It's unfortunate though.

Sponge Bob

Galway and Cork are actually scoring very very close to Dublin, the two levellers would be

a) The IDA having a much better idea of foreign cuisine and food and entertaining in ETHNIC restaurants in Galway and Cork instead of sticking to bland hotels and 'Irish' cuisine even though there is nothing wrong with it. When they bring execs to Cork they end up in Kinsale, the execs know their staff will not be eating in Kinsale day in and day out and their reaction is WTF ???? One Fortune 500 Executive told me that he had no idea there were so many good ethic eateries in Galway because he was brought to high end local restaurants all the time. He reckons the IDA are ruined with their expense accounts that let them eat constantly in high end Irish cuisine restaurants and play golf at great courses and should spend MUCH more time checking out indians and italians and chinese. He personally loved the food but he located in Dublin.

2. Dark Fibre. Fortune 500 scale companies get IRUs ( fibre leases) and they build their own networks, they do not want to deal with eircom or anybody elses networks and peering arrangements. Ireland has no dark fibre outside Dublin.

bk

Sponge Bob wrote: »

2. Dark Fibre. Fortune 500 scale companies get IRUs ( fibre leases) and they build their own networks, they do not want to deal with eircom or anybody elses networks and peering arrangements. Ireland has no dark fibre outside Dublin.

Yup, that is one of the main reasons why all the IT companies setup in Dublin. The multinationals that setup in Cork tend to be pharmaceutical companies where dark fibre is a little less important.

bk

luohaoran wrote: »

Point taken.
It wasn't immediately obvious to me that a "large skilled workforce" meant "young adventure seeking graduates". And I guess recruiters have to deal with the misconceptions on the urban rural divide as their target audience requires.
It's unfortunate though.

It is the foreign bit that is more important, companies like ebay are often setting up sophisticated operations that require large numbers of people that speak foreign languages. Something we Irish fail miserably at. And I don't just mean basic tele support, but often sophisticated sales, marketing and accounting/finance operations where they need skilled people from around the world.

Empire o de Sun

luohaoran wrote: »

I live rurally now, and haven't a minute to spare

is that cos you live in a one off house in the middle of nowhere and spend most of your time commuting?

KevR

bk wrote: »

I'm afraid luohaoran that murphaph is correct.

I work for a large US IT multinational myself and I can assure you that one of the primary reasons they all setup in Dublin is what murphaph outlined.

Speaking to recruiters, they tell me they have a difficult enough time convincing people to move to Dublin, when they are competing with London, Brussels, Zurich, Berlin, etc.

That isn't to say that there aren't things to do in rural areas, it just isn't attractive to young adventure seeking foreign graduates.

dubhthach wrote: »

Just regarding Athlone was doing some reading back over the newspapers from 2003/2004. It would seem that originally the IDA would only show Ebay a site in Athlone if they wanted initial grants/funding for setup.

Seems Ebay went to the Táiniste (Mary Harney at the time), however Harney backed the IDA and as a result Ebay threatened to pull the plug on setting up in Ireland. As you can imagine the government and the IDA folded. The official reason put out by IDA for not setting up in Athlone was "Infrastructure" -- :rolleyes:

Funnily enough, the multinational company I work for recently shut down one of it's Dublin offices and has significantly expanded their operations in Athlone. Highly skilled work (in a sector where there is actually a shortage of graduates at the moment) and this company has no problems attracting people (from all over the world) to Athlone. Also, the people who transferred here from Dublin seem to love it.

I really like working in Athlone. The town is a nice size and is really easy to get around in a car because of the bypass. 40 mins to Galway and hour to Dublin; you won't have a huge distance to travel if you can't find anything to do in Athlone at the weekend. Athlone people are really sound too.

I joined as a graduate and the pay is at the same level, if not slightly higher, than most graduate jobs I looked at in Galway or Dublin. Given that the cost of living is much lower here (rent/property in particular) people working here have a much better quality of life . I'm commuting from Galway at the moment but I hope to move to Athlone at some stage in the next 6 months.

dubhthach

Sponge Bob wrote: »

2. Dark Fibre. Fortune 500 scale companies get IRUs ( fibre leases) and they build their own networks, they do not want to deal with eircom or anybody elses networks and peering arrangements. Ireland has no dark fibre outside Dublin.

It seems that Aurora Telecom (Bord Gáis) will be offering Dark Fibre on their new buildout to the west:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/1001/1224280081122.html
http://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/item/18035-dark-fibre-weaves-its-way-w

Also ESB Telecoms do Dark Fibre:
http://www.esbtelecoms.ie/bandwidth_services/dark_fibre.htm

It's also possible to get Dark Fibre on the MAN's operated by E-Net (of course not much use if you don't have a dark fibre backhaul out of the MAN)

Sponge Bob

dubhthach wrote: »

Also ESB Telecoms do Dark Fibre:
http://www.esbtelecoms.ie/bandwidth_services/dark_fibre.htm

Nope, not on the National Figure of 8 ring, they used to but no longer. In Dublin they do I'll wager.