IDA has not failed Laois says Minister for Enterprise Simon Coveney

The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment has rejected a suggestion that the IDA has failed Laois, after the agency confirmed it has no plan to build a new factory on recently purchased land in Portlaoise.

Minister Simon Coveney while on a visit to Laois this week, said that the IDA's purchase of 45 acres  Portlaoise land is a positive signal for Laois jobs, despite the IDA saying they have no plan to build a factory to attract a multinational to the county.

He rejected a suggestion that the IDA has failed the county, which has by far the least IDA supported jobs in Ireland, at 157 out of over 275,000 jobs nationwide. 

The agency has just confirmed that it is not planning to build a factory on a 45 acre site it purchased recently in Portlaoise. The former farm land adjoins the IDA Business Technology Park on the Mountrath Road.

Instead it will seek advice from Laois County Council on how to repeat their business success story at J17 National Enterprise Park which has created a potential 470 jobs. Read more below.

Minister Coveney said that the Mountrath Road site purchase is the first step to more Laois jobs.

“The fact that we have invested significant money in buying 45 acres is a clear signal that they want to prioritise Laois. The whole point of buying strategic land holding is so that if suitable companies come along that want to locate in the Midlands, and we’re encouraging them to do that, particularly outside of Dublin, that we have a land bank here that can facilitate that. I’d see this as a big positive. Not a negative.

“The IDA are buying strategic land banks in different parts of the country, which is a signal that they want to try to bring foreign direct investment to those parts of the country,” Minister Coveney said.

“Of course they want to work with the local authority to put a proposition together to hopefully attract FDI to bring jobs to this part of the country. 

“This is public money, the IDA has to prioritise money to purchase land banks and they’ve chosen to prioritise Laois.

“If they are buying sites they also need to have a plan to service them. If we can get interest then we can look at the funding for servicing the sites as well. And we’ll have to work with the local authority and facility providers to do that, whether it’s water, energy or sewerage, road infrastructure. 

Laois to teach IDA how to create jobs in county

“This starts with purchasing a strategic footprint and then you can start to market it internationally and we are at that first stage. Which is a signal that the IDA are now prioritising Portlaoise and Laois as a potential location for a big project I hope at some stage in the future,” the Minister said.

He spoke to the Leinster Express / Laois Live at the launch of The Cube Low Carbon business centre in Portlaoise, on Thursday, March 30.