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South East Employment Action Plan

Psychedelic

Anybody read this yet? Richard Bruton published it last Friday. I haven't read it but having skimmed through the 105 page document it looks like a lot of it is just telling us stuff we already know, and seems very light on any actions that can/will be done to address the problem of high unemployment in the region.

Main points:
- €200,000 fund available for 10 start-up businesses
- IDA will further promote their innovation vouchers (these are already available)
- recommendations that Enterprise Boards, Enterprise Ireland and IDA reps in the region work closer together
- IDA will prioritise attracting investment in the region in certain sectors and will work closely with Councils

Press release: http://www.deji.ie/press/2011/20111202.htm

The Plan: http://www.forfas.ie/media/021211-South_East_Action_Plan_Publication.pdf

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comeraghs

No Cabinet voice = No Pull = No Jobs!

In Fact that clown Hogan would probably veto any jobs that were to come to Waterford!

Sully

comeraghs wrote: »

No Cabinet voice = No Pull = No Jobs!

I believe that our TDs are voicing said concerns to the minister(s) and the IDA. I don't believe having a Minister would help things any further.

In Fact that clown Hogan would probably veto any jobs that were to come to Waterford!

Stupid comment, to be fair. Some Waterford people have this anti-Kilkenny attitude and they despise anything to do with them and that includes politicians.

fricatus

Sully wrote: »

I don't believe having a Minister would help things any further.

Well then Sully you have a lot to learn about how this country works. Ivan Yates as much as admitted that in his department, files relating to the Minister's constituency were marked with a differentiating mark of some sort (different colour binder or sticker), so that civil servants would know that they had to be prioritised.

The M9 came very close to not being built. You remember the objections to it, not least from people on the Roads/Infrastructure forum, but even outside of boards.ie, there were loads of objections (I remember one by Sen. John Dardis, and Vincent Browne wrote about the "waste of money building a motorway to the minister's constituency"). Do you think that motorway or the new bridge would have been built had we not got a minister at the cabinet table? I have no particular love for Cullen by the way, but ministers rule the roost in this country. If you don't understand that, you're politically naive.

Sully wrote: »

Stupid comment, to be fair. Some Waterford people have this anti-Kilkenny attitude and they despise anything to do with them and that includes politicians.

Hogan is no supporter of Waterford. When did he ever come out in support of the university campaign for example? He's only in favour of it lately since it appears to be gaining traction, and I note that it's a university in the "southeast" that he always talks about - with the price for any support on his part being the inclusion of Carlow IT in the deal and probably the removal of parts of the merged institution to Kilkenny.

He's also trying to merge Waterford city and county councils, which is essentially an effort to downgrade Waterford's status to that of a county town. He could save the same money by merging Leitrim and Sligo, Cavan and Monaghan, or Longford and Westmeath. He could merge Carlow and Kilkenny! All of these are mainly rural authorities, which fit well together. Waterford city has different needs from the county, and that includes managing all of its hinterland. Yet Phil wants to merge the Waterford councils. I note that he's not doing the same in Galway or Cork.

I don't give a sh1t where he's from Sully. I just really do not like what he's trying to do! :mad:

Sully

fricatus wrote: »

Well then Sully you have a lot to learn about how this country works. Ivan Yates as much as admitted that in his department, files relating to the Minister's constituency were marked with a differentiating mark of some sort (different colour binder or sticker), so that civil servants would know that they had to be prioritised.

I'm not saying it doesn't work like that, but I just don't think for Waterford that we will instantly get jobs if we have a Minister.

The M9 came very close to not being built. You remember the objections to it, not least from people on the Roads/Infrastructure forum, but even outside of boards.ie, there were loads of objections (I remember one by Sen. John Dardis, and Vincent Browne wrote about the "waste of money building a motorway to the minister's constituency"). Do you think that motorway or the new bridge would have been built had we not got a minister at the cabinet table? I have no particular love for Cullen by the way, but ministers rule the roost in this country. If you don't understand that, you're politically naive.

Not down as far as Waterford without Cullen, who brought in additional investment and if I recall even helped the Waterford United.

Hogan is no supporter of Waterford. When did he ever come out in support of the university campaign for example? He's only in favour of it lately since it appears to be gaining traction, and I note that it's a university in the "southeast" that he always talks about - with the price for any support on his part being the inclusion of Carlow IT in the deal and probably the removal of parts of the merged institution to Kilkenny.

WIT was always a University for South East campaign. The campaigns that grew traction were targeting the South East, not just Waterford.

He's also trying to merge Waterford city and county councils, which is essentially an effort to downgrade Waterford's status to that of a county town. He could save the same money by merging Leitrim and Sligo, Cavan and Monaghan, or Longford and Westmeath. He could merge Carlow and Kilkenny! All of these are mainly rural authorities, which fit well together. Waterford city has different needs from the county, and that includes managing all of its hinterland. Yet Phil wants to merge the Waterford councils. I note that he's not doing the same in Galway or Cork.

Waterford has been on the cards for sometime, and I actually think that the whole country is a wash with councils that could be scrapped or merged. I'm not so sure about Waterford, as the county is pretty large but I don't know enough about it yet to properly comment on it. We are not the only City being targeted and I fully agree that Carlow / Kilkenny could be considered a prime spot.

I don't give a sh1t where he's from Sully. I just really do not like what he's trying to do! :mad:

Yeah but some people are convinced because he is a Kilkenny man, then we are all doomed. I find it infuriating the attitude towards Kilkenny people in general, Hogan aside.

fricatus

Sully wrote: »

I'm not saying it doesn't work like that, but I just don't think for Waterford that we will instantly get jobs if we have a Minister.

No of course a minister can't just make jobs magically appear, but when the work is being done to get jobs to locate in a particular area, not having a minister is a distinct disadvantage.

Sully wrote: »

WIT was always a University for South East campaign. The campaigns that grew traction were targeting the South East, not just Waterford.

That's not true. Back in the mid-'80s the campaign was called the Waterford City University Project Committee. The wider south-east focus is a relatively new thing.

Sully wrote: »

We are not the only City being targeted and I fully agree that Carlow / Kilkenny could be considered a prime spot.

That's right. Limerick is being targeted too, but not Galway. I don't get it...

Sully wrote: »

Yeah but some people are convinced because he is a Kilkenny man, then we are all doomed.

The trouble with Irish constituency politics is that it's very localised, and any politician who wants to be successful in Kilkenny has to be doing stuff for Kilkenny, naturally enough.

A university, extra investment in WRH, IDA-backed projects, etc. in Waterford would all benefit Kilkenny, particularly south Kilkenny, which - let's face it - is more Waterford's hinterland than Kilkenny city's. However if the headline in the Kilkenny People doesn't talk about "jobs for Kilkenny", "a university for Kilkenny" or "investment in St Luke's", then it doesn't look like their politicians are doing anything.

In fact if Hogan does any of these things for Waterford, he's seen as disloyal, so naturally enough he won't.

I think the reason people see a Kilkenny man as the worst person to be minster is this: if a minister from Sligo or Clare gets funding for, I dunno, a new type of brain scanner, in every region, then he'll probably just put the south-east one in Waterford, which makes most sense, as this is where the regional hospital and largest centre of population is. However a Kilkenny minister will do all he can so that this thing goes to Luke's because it's in his constituency.

Quite frankly, that's why I'm nervous about any support Hogan or Howlin might give to a university in the south east. Will they just want to carve off bits for their own constituencies? If that's the case, I'd nearly rather a Dub or a Mayo man in charge!

mike65

fricatus you'll be thrilled to know that Dawn meats have done a deal with McDonalds, 65 jobs on the way.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0523/mcdonalds-ireland-signs-300m-deal-with-dawn-meats.html

hardybuck

mike65 wrote: »

fricatus you'll be thrilled to know that Dawn meats have done a deal with McDonalds, 65 jobs on the way.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0523/mcdonalds-ireland-signs-300m-deal-with-dawn-meats.html[/QUOTE]

Apparently a large portion of McDonald's European beef is sourced in Ireland, great for both Waterford and the country.

As an aside, Kerry Foods cater for a huge amount of Subway's meat and dairy needs. They may not be in Waterford, but that appears to be our most consistent area of growth of late.

Psychedelic

hardybuck wrote: »

As an aside, Kerry Foods cater for a huge amount of Subway's meat and dairy needs. They may not be in Waterford, but that appears to be our most consistent area of growth of late.

Dawn Meats also have a contract with Subway: http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0217/dawnfoods.html

fricatus

mike65 wrote: »

fricatus you'll be thrilled to know that Dawn meats have done a deal with McDonalds, 65 jobs on the way.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0523/mcdonalds-ireland-signs-300m-deal-with-dawn-meats.html

Good news is good news Mike!

Max Powers

Legacy of National spacial strategy in spotlight

By Geoff Percival
Monday, May 28, 2012
New research has found as much as 82% of jobs created here by overseas firms in the past six years have been centred around Dublin, Cork and Galway.
The findings — by professors Proinnsias Breathnach and Chris van Egeraat of NUI Maynooth — will be formally presented next week at a conference examining the first 10 years of the National Spatial Strategy, hosted by the ESRI.

Peter Mehlbye — director of the co-ordination unit for the European Observation Network on Territorial Development and Cohesion — will deliver the keynote address.

A former member of the NSS advisory committee, Mr Mehlbye will argue that spatial strategies here need to show greater understanding and openness towards European and global strategy, when it comes to growth and jobs. He claims it is important to consider European perspectives on "a variety of relevant themes" when processing a revisited NSS for Ireland.

"People exist in places, and if governance arrangements don’t reflect this in policy design, it’s likely that disjointed public service outcomes will continue to arise," noted Dr Sean O’Riordain, director of the Public Policy Advisors Network.

"Such lessons have been learnt across the OECD, but — it seems — not in Ireland. This suggests an urgency is required to bring forward thinking based-upon place and not just theme, and this means we have to address the governance arrangements of the State in a manner not previously undertaken.

"If the review of the NSS is to mean anything, we must bring place-based perspective to all public policy discussions; otherwise we will be left with further spatial disfunctionality, disjointed public service delivery and a frustrated citizenry. The question is whether our political and administrative leaders appreciate this," he said.

Mr O’Riordain said the potential of the NSS was largely lost, even before the challenges of managing a planning environment driven by developer proposals during the Celtic Tiger era.

"Ireland is now, quite possibly, about to make the same mistakes with the move towards shared service models based upon service themes, rather than on the functionality of day-to-day living," he said.

fricatus

Max Powers wrote: »

New research has found as much as 82% of jobs created here by overseas firms in the past six years have been centred around Dublin, Cork and Galway.

Well now, there's a surprise! :rolleyes:

Max Powers wrote: »

The findings — by professors Proinnsias Breathnach and Chris van Egeraat of NUI Maynooth — will be formally presented next week at a conference examining the first 10 years of the National Spatial Strategy, hosted by the ESRI.

This will make for very interesting reading, and will be very relevant to Waterford I would say...

Max Powers wrote: »

"If the review of the NSS is to mean anything, we must bring place-based perspective to all public policy discussions; otherwise we will be left with further spatial disfunctionality, disjointed public service delivery and a frustrated citizenry. The question is whether our political and administrative leaders appreciate this," he said.

Interesting... particularly in the case of the university discussion, where we generally hear the argument that "Ireland doesn't need any more universities", which conveniently ignores the fact that there are four in the Dublin area and three in the rest of the country.

BBM77

WLR is also running this today.

“Census figures give another indication of how Waterford is struggling economically.

The figures detail the age of the population, showing a baby boom in recent years. However, Waterford is shown to be quite different from other cities where the young adult population, aged between 20 and 40, peaks as young people migrate for third level education and work opportunities. Gerald Bradley of the CSO says the new figures reveal two baby booms in Waterford almost thirty years apart.”

We need to take drastic action. Enough is enough, we pay our taxes to the government like everywhere else and we are simple not being served by the government like everywhere else.

O Riain

Thats 82% is up to what date in time? Im sure if it was up the present time then it could be made up of >85%

fricatus

From the Irish Times yesterday:

the Irish Times wrote:

80% of jobs in new foreign firms go to just three cities

THE NATIONAL Spatial Strategy is not working, with almost 80 per cent of jobs created by new foreign firms in the last decade being located in Dublin, Cork and Galway, a conference at the ESRI will be told today.

With these three cities also accounting for 62 per cent of job gains in existing foreign firms and less than half of job losses, their share of all foreign employment rose markedly, from 49 per cent to 58 per cent, over the period.

In relation to newly-established foreign firms in the last decade, of the eight spatial strategy gateways (excluding Dublin) only Cork and Galway managed to increase their share of inward investment.

The other six, which between them accounted for 15.9 per cent of foreign employment in 2001, only attracted 7 per cent of employment in new foreign plants.

Economic geographers Chris van Egeraat and Proinnsias Breathnacht from NUI Maynooth are expected to tell the conference that this level of concentration in just three cities shows that the objectives of the spatial strategy are not being met.

According to the geographers, foreign firms investing for the first time have a key role to play in meeting regional policy objectives as they are more flexible in choosing locations for new investment compared to existing foreign firms. Indigenous Irish firms also tend to expand in existing locations.

Speaking to The Irish Times yesterday, Dr van Egeraat said: “Existing firms are less influenced by incentives driven by the National Spatial Strategy as they are already in their location. That is why new foreign firms will play a key role.

“You have to create investment in places to make them attractive for foreign direct investment. Places such as Waterford and Limerick have not received that boost.”

He said these cities represented 8.8 per cent of all foreign employment in 2001, but attracted only 2.8 per cent of employment in new foreign firms while losing 40.5 per cent of their existing foreign employment.

The spatial strategy was published in 2002 as a blueprint for economic and social development within the State over the following 20 years.

It designated nine “gateways” – consisting of the State’s cities as well as the towns of Dundalk and Sligo and the linked gateways of Letterkenny/Derry and the midland towns of Athlone/Tullamore/Mullingar – as preferred places for growth.

These gateways were to be supported by “hubs” such as Killarney, Ennis, Tuam and Kilkenny, which would help channel growth to the regions.

The strategy sought to divert investment from Dublin to the gateways and hubs. However, Dublin alone, with 35 per cent of all foreign employment in 2001, has attracted 53 per cent of jobs in new foreign firms since then.

BBM77

I see the numbers in employment terms are getting worse in the south east...

"South East unemployment approaching 20%

The official unemployment rate in the South East is now nearing 20%.Unemployment in the region has increased by more than 2,000 in the past year according to the latest figures from the CSO.It brings the total number of people without a job in the South East to 229,800, a rate of 19.7%, signinficantly higher than any other region in the country.These figures, in combination with the Live Register, would suggest than Waterford is one of the worst unemployment black spots in the country."

http://www.wlrfm.com/news-and-sport/waterford-news.html

Still no action from government of course :mad:

Max Powers

BBM77 wrote: »

I see the numbers in employment terms are getting worse in the south east...

"South East unemployment approaching 20%

Still no action from government of course :mad:

Did you take any action on it BBM77?

BBM77

Max Powers wrote: »

Did you take any action on it BBM77?

No, I didn’t, but point taken.

fricatus

Possibly some good news in the offing?

The Irish Times wrote:

Glanbia in joint venture talks

Food group Glanbia has said it is continuing to engage in constructive discussions with its majority shareholder, Glanbia Co-Operative Society.

The talks are about creating a joint venture (40/60) in respect of its Irish dairy processing business Dairy Ingredients Ireland, the global nutritionals group said in a statement today.

Dairy Ingredients Ireland is the largest dairy ingredients processor in the country, and is a business unit of the Dairy Ireland division of Glanbia.

"The purpose and strategy of the proposed new joint venture will be to facilitate the continued development of the existing global Dairy Ingredients business including the flexibility to expand milk processing capacity post the abolition of EU milk quotas in 2015," according to the food group.

For any new processing capacity to be ready for 2015 a planning application needs to be submitted in early July. As a result, Glanbia is finalising an option to purchase a greenfield site at Belview, Co Kilkenny from IDA Ireland.

"Considerable progress has been made with the proposed transaction and while discussions are progressing well, it is now expected that these discussions will not be concluded before the end of August 2012," the company said.

fricatus

Here's an interesting article:

The Irish Times wrote:

Potential foreign investors ignore regions

GORDON DEEGAN

LARGE AREAS of the country are not considered by foreign investors looking at locating industry here, according to new figures.

The figures, provided by Minister for Enterprise Richard Bruton, show that no visits by potential foreign investors were recorded in 12 counties to the end of this May: Carlow, Donegal, Kerry, Kildare, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Meath, Monaghan, Roscommon, Tipperary and Wexford.

The figures show that Dublin continues to receive the lion’s share of visits. In a written Dáil response to a question from Fianna Fáil’s Michael McGrath, Mr Bruton confirmed that Dublin got 52 per cent, or 85, of the 162 foreign investor visits in the five months to the end of May.

The next highest was 17 visits to Cork, then Limerick and Waterford with 12 visits, while 10 visits were recorded in Galway.

The site visits to the top five cities accounted for 84 per cent of the IDA- sponsored visits this year.

This leaves 16 per cent in the remainder of the country with six visits each to Clare and Louth.

Wexford, Roscommon and Longford had no site visits this year or last year.

Yesterday, Mr McGrath said, of the counties where no site visit had taken place, “there is virtually no prospect of these counties attracting foreign direct investment into the future”.

The Cork deputy said the IDA needs to make a greater effort in sponsoring site visits across the regions. He said that the number of visits to Cork this year was very small compared with Dublin.

In his written response, Mr Bruton said: “As Ireland competes for high-quality investments, the concept of scale is crucial. Leading global corporations require a significant population pool, access to qualified talent, world-standard physical and digital infrastructure coupled with the availability of sophisticated professional and business support services.

“Whilst IDA Ireland seeks to influence the selection of a location, the final decision . . . is taken in all cases by the client company.”

The figures are broken down per county, so they're quite simplistic. However maybe we're seeing some sort of turning point with Waterford and Limerick seeing quite a few more visits than has been the case lately?

mike65

Richard Bruton was here again yesterday, I think he's told the IDA to pull their finger out and at least look like they are interested in Waterford.

Silverado

fricatus wrote: »

Here's an interesting article:

The figures are broken down per county, so they're quite simplistic. However maybe we're seeing some sort of turning point with Waterford and Limerick seeing quite a few more visits than has been the case lately?

If Waterford received 12 visits and Galway 10 then they seem to be getting a far higher return in terms of jobs. Are we that unattractive?

fricatus

Silverado wrote: »

If Waterford received 12 visits and Galway 10 then they seem to be getting a far higher return in terms of jobs. Are we that unattractive?

That's this year to the end of May though, right?

Any jobs being announced lately for Galway will have been as a result of visits made in earlier years surely? I would imagine that it takes a year to 18 months before jobs are announced and feet are under desks...

hardybuck

mike65 wrote: »

Richard Bruton was here again yesterday, I think he's told the IDA to pull their finger out and at least look like they are interested in Waterford.

He was here yesterday for the announcement of 30 new jobs in Eirgen. Surprised nobody here has mentioned it.

Professey Chin

I have to wonder how much empty office space we actually have here. The big ones coming to mind are the old NTL building and AOL. Not sure of any other big sites

CardBordWindow

The Great Chinholio wrote: »

I have to wonder how much empty office space we actually have here. The big ones coming to mind are the old NTL building and AOL. Not sure of any other big sites

I remember last year there was a massive clean up of the NTL building. Windows washed, walls painted, and then nothing!! I was sure someone was gonna move in.

hardybuck

Just saw an article stating that Limerick was the worst affected area in the recession, with 7 of the top 10 unemployment blackspots in the city. Parts of Longford and Galway made up the rest of the top 10, with Waterford not featuring at all.

Bards

Here's an article I read, which is completely opposite of what you just said
=======================================================

http://www.waterford-news.com/news/mhqlgbojid/

City has seven of nation’s unemployment blackspots

NOT only doesWaterford City have the highest unemployment rate in the country at 24.6% it also contains seven out of 81 nationwide unemployment black spots.

According to the latest publication from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), ‘This is Ireland – Highlights from Census 2012, Part two’, the city’s unemployment rate doubled since the last census in 2006.

Furthermore, it revealed that the seven black spots, which include the electoral areas of Larchville, Lisduggan, Ballybeg North, Roanmore, Newport Square and Mount Sion, as of last year had an average unemployment rate of 41%.

According to the CSO an unemployment black spot is defined as an electoral division that has more than 200 people in the labour force and where the unemployment rate exceeds 35%. Out of the seven black spots in the city Larchville has the highest unemployment rate which stands at 44.1%, which is followed closely by Lisduggan at 3.3%.

Ballybeg North did not fair any better on the unemployment front as 41.9% people are not working in this area. Furthermore Roanmore in the city has also been hit hard with unemployment as the rate here stands at 44.3%. Other areas in the city that have bared the brunt of joblessness are Newport Square with 36.9%, Mount Sion at 36.9% and The Glen at 35.4%.

Currently there are 12,054 people unemployed in the city and 14,391 in the county, and according to the report Water-ford’s labour force participation fell from 69.4% to 60% since

2006. However, the number of persons in the labour force in April 2011 in Waterford was 53,514, which is an increase of 2,090, or 4.1%, since April 2006.
====================================================================================================

.... Oh, More jobs yet again for Galway the sacred Cow

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/boost-for-economy-as-350-new-jobs-unveiled-3160442.html

JOBSEEKERS received a welcome boost yesterday with the announcement of the creation of 350 new posts.

The new jobs -- at insurance firm Aviva Ireland, financial consultants Grant Thornton, and in the marine sector -- are all in the Galway area.

Aviva Ireland unveiled plans to recruit 220 more staff in the city, despite the fact it is currently seeking 540 redundancies in other areas of its Irish operation over the next three years.

The company had initially announced that 770 jobs would be lost but scaled back this figure earlier this year.

And the latest recruitment drive was announced following a a cost-saving programme that led to more competitive cost and staffing structures.

The new jobs will be in areas where redundancies are not being sought.

Excellence

It is believed the new Galway jobs were created after the company secured new contracts across the wider business group.

The 220 positions will filled over the next two years, in insurance claims and direct sales centres of excellence in Galway.

The new staff will be located in Aviva's existing facility in the Galway West business park in Knocknacarra.

Grainne Macken, a spokeswoman for Aviva Ireland, said it had opted to create the new positions in Galway because of the track record of staff currently working there.

"The centre is there and through our sales and services team we see the expertise and work history that tells us this is the ideal place for us to expand," said Ms Macken.

The Galway facility is to become a Aviva global Centre of Excellence, servicing both new claims and direct sales for both the Irish and UK markets.

Ms Macken added that the new jobs were a "significant step forward" in their longer term vision for business in Ireland.

Confidence

"We look forward to welcoming our 220 new members to our team in the months ahead," she added.

The jobs announcement follows the news of 50 new jobs nationwide through financial consultancy firm Grant Thornton.

Ten of these positions are based at the new Galway offices in Merchants Square in the city, where another five will also be created this year.

Announcing the jobs yesterday, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the news illustrates the firm's confidence in Galway's economic sector.

Meanwhile, the Marine Institute and SmartOcean Ireland hosted 'Oceans of Opportunity' -- a marine careers and training event as part of the Ocean Wealth Showcase at the Volvo Ocean Race.

More than 80 Irish-based marine jobs are on offer at the event and over 140 international opportunities across shipping, technology, research, energy, and cruise line hospitality. The jobs can be viewed at www.marinejobs.ie.

hardybuck

Has someone read the report wrong so!?

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/cso-limerick-hit-hardest-by-unemployment-558082.html

Edit: Limerick has 7 out of the Top 10. Waterford has 7 in the 81 which are located nationwide.

Bards

hardybuck wrote: »

Has someone read the report wrong so!?

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/cso-limerick-hit-hardest-by-unemployment-558082.html

Edit: Limerick has 7 out of the Top 10. Waterford has 7 in the 81 which are located nationwide.

obviously someone has:D

hardybuck

Bards wrote: »

obviously someone has:D

Well not me anyway - breakingnews.ie made no reference to Waterford at all!