Enterprise group plots way forward

Enterprise group plots way forward


Focus on indigenous business key to group’s strategy

Edwin McGreal

A group aiming to address the jobs crisis in Mayo by creating sustainable employment opportunities has identified the three key priority areas: indigenous business, foreign direct investment and infrastructure investment.
The Mayo Enterprise and Innovation Advocacy Group has been working over the last two years, and has held regular meetings with An Taoiseach Enda Kenny to discuss the way forward.
The group consists of four well-known industry figures – Tom Canavan, John Caulfield, Peter Glynn and Dom Molloy – and they engaged in broad consultation with enterprise groups, state agencies, private companies and individual entrepreneurs at county and national level.
The group believes that the first priority area it identified – indigenous business – will be greatly influenced by the Local Enterprise Office (LEO) due to open under the auspices of Mayo County Council in the coming months. The group the LEO, staffed with experts in strategic sectors like tourism and agri-food, will greatly help companies in these growing fields to create more jobs.
When it comes to the second priority area, the group feels the county must have at least one ‘enterprise ready’ facility with 35,000- to 75,000-square-foot capacity, and that it should be marketed globally by such agencies as the IDA.
The group believes infrastructure investment should enable high-speed broadband, electricity generation and energy transmission capacity in order to meet future growth needs, as well as a modern roads network and a fully developed airport at Knock to grow the tourism sector.

Taoiseach’s response
Responding to the conclusions of the group, An Taoiseach Enda Kenny said in a statement that ‘the business case for infrastructure investment in airports, roads, electricity and broadband must be fully explained and justified so that a county like Mayo can be prioritised for such developments’.
He stated that Government funding for regional airports, such as Knock, was now confirmed for the next ten years and added that there are plans to deliver high-speed broadband to Castlebar and Westport.
He reiterated his stance that where foreign direct investment companies locate is ‘very much up to themselves’, but added that a big ‘selling point’ would be to have such a facility ‘up and ready for immediate occupation by a company’, and he urged Mayo County Council and the IDA to have two or three ‘enterprise ready’ buildings in the county that could be marketed overseas.
The Taoiseach agreed with the group that the LEO ‘must be staffed with high-calibre and capable staff who are experts in the sectors ’, adding that ‘a focus on tourism and agri-food sectors was playing to the strengths of the county’. He also predicted that marine and renewable energy ‘will quickly emerge as key sectors’.
He concluded by encouraging the group to devise a multi-year investment plan for the county.