Tánaiste Leo Varadkar 'confident' of new Laois multinational jobs

New jobs created as a result of foreign investment in Ireland are on their way to Laois according to the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar.

He made the prediction during a visit to Laois on Friday, April 8 to see for himself two businesses which have gone into operation in Portlaoise involving North American investment.

Mr Varadkar visited the Canadian owned Greenfield Global plant in the IDA business Park and Irish / USA run Glanbia cheese plant J17 National Enterprise Park.

Asked by the Leinster Express if any multinationals are considering opening a Laois base.

"Yes there are. We have some of the IDA officials here with us.  They are commercially sensitive, we're not allowed to give names but now that visits like this are back there will be a number," the Tánaiste said.

"I would be confident that there would be at least one positive announcement this year. But you just never know," he added.

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Asked if Government agencies should be doing more for Laois jobs, given the success of Laois County Council in building J17 National Enterprise Park which has already created nearly 300 jobs, Minister Varadkar agreed.

"Enterprise Ireland and the IDA can be pushed to do more, they are being pushed to do more by me as Minister.

"But I think what works best is collaboration, when you have the local authority and the Government agencies working together. In fairness Laois County Council has really put up its hand and done well in recent years and we recognise that. A huge part of course is infrastructure which is important. At the park here we do have the roads and connections. I've often engaged with Charlie [Flanagan] on the issue of the ring road and relief road which is really important, and the broadband too.

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"But I think having Greenfield here really helps because when we're doing site visits which we weren't able to do for ages because of the pandemic, when another potential investor or multinational sees that somebody is already set up and working successfully, it's much easier to convince them to make that investment and that's what we can do now.

"I think the Midlands in general will benefit a bit from the fact that Dublin is now very full and very congested and very expensive. Costs are a little bit lower here both in terms of labour and housing costs and that's a potential," Minister Varadkar said.