Job creation in Mayo - fact or fiction?

MAKING PLANS An Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Minister Richard Bruton at a tree planting ceremony at the IDA site on the Breaffy Road, Castlebar, last April where plans for a new IDA development were revealed. Also pictured were Peter Hynes, Chief Executive, Mayo County Council) and Sarah O’Connell, IDA.Pic: Michael McLaughlin

Many candidates quote ‘job creation’ as their number one priority. Áine Ryan looks at how the Government has performed in Mayo when it comes to employment

Even in the tourism honeypot of Westport the ravages of the economic collapse were clearly in evidence along its colour-coordinated streetscapes when the outgoing Government came to power in the spring of 2011. Locals speculated each week on what shopfront shutters would be down next. Talk was about the fact that such a popular tourism destination needed small, quirky artisan and craft shops rather than three betting shops and more multiples.
If there was any town in County Mayo to escape the worst exigencies of the crash it would have to be Westport. This was not only because of its spectacular location in the shadow of Croagh Patrick on the edge of scenic Clew Bay and its proven record as a popular tourism resort. Over recent decades Westport’s spirit of volunteerism had been cleverly complemented by a progressive town council and, significantly, a Fine Gael TD – and now a Minister for State for Tourism and Sport, Michael Ring – who always had an eagle eye on the needs of his home town.
For the incoming Government, the timing in 2011 couldn’t have been more opportune for the completion of the Great Western Greenway, which runs from the heritage town to Achill. Instead of turning to prayer in the hope of better times, people were embracing the outdoors – free fresh air –  as a form of escape from a regime of austerity which had banished all the profligacy of the Celtic Tiger days.
In 2011 alone, 144,000 people cycled or walked along the 42km pathway. This bicycle bonanza soon lead to the development of small businesses from cafes and cycling outlets and niche-tourism operators all along the route.
But it is worth remembering that the development of the Greenway preceded the outgoing Fine Gael-Labour coalition Government. Months before the Fianna FΡil electoral meltdown in late 2010, the then Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey TD and FΡilte Ireland had announced a joint funding package of €3.5m for Mayo County Council to complete the Great Western Greenway.
By early 2012 the Fine Gael MEP Jim Higgins was quoting a Bord FΡilte report, which effectively showed a €2 million profit in the first year.  
“The Greenway has paid for itself in less than a year. The Greenway only cost €5.6m to construct and brought €7.2m to the local economy in 2011 alone. This is an excellent project and everybody involved deserves huge credit,” Higgins said.
The study stated that 47 percent of businesses surveyed confirmed that the Greenway has led to an increase in business turnover; 31 percent stated that the Greenway has led to an increase in their expenditure in the local area; it helped to create some 38 new full-time jobs and was sustaining a further 56 existing jobs.
So who exactly created these jobs? The Fine Gael-Labour coalition? The previous Fianna FΡil government? FΡilte Ireland? The farmers who facilitated the opening of the Greenway? The niche business owners? Angela Merkel? Ajai Chopra?

Job creation chasm
ON another note there is quite a chasm between the concept of job creation and the reality of concrete jobs. This chasm can be significantly closed when employment is for a big infrastructural development like the Corrib Gas project. At the peak of its construction phase it employed circa 1,400 people. Now that it is completed it supports about 175 jobs.
So was it the Government’s favourable terms for big oil industries that created these jobs or the fact that for the Corrib Gas Partners, no matter what the terms were, the profits would  be huge?   
Multinationals like Allergan Pharmaceuticals in Westport can also provide clear figures about employment levels. For example, in 2012 it  announced a €275m investment at its Mayo plant which would create 200 new jobs as well as 250 construction jobs. It already employed 800 people.
Attending the Westport facility for the announcement, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said: “Developments like this will help us on the path to economic recovery.”
So, just because he was there, does that mean the Government created the jobs? No. It is entrepreneurs - whether they are global giants or local business people – who create jobs and Governments (if solvent) and their agencies create conditions to support this.
Fast-forward to February 2015 and the pre-General Election spin machine would leave even a Tour de France cyclist dizzy. We are being told that every job created contributes €20,000 to the Exchequer and that, under the steady tiller of the outgoing Government, unemployment has fallen to a countrywide average of 8.6 percent. We were also told though that there was a whopping €12 billion of fiscal space over the coming five years.  Although, Sinn Féin’s finance spokesman, Pearse Doherty left them with egg on their face over that claim. Let’s not go there again but suffice to say that ‘the fiscal space’ needed for equitable job creation in this county and region has not happened to date, Taoiseach or no Taoiseach.
 
Action Plan for Jobs
SO what is real and what is surreal about job creation? It is a quagmire, isn’t it?  Let’s go back to November last when the Taoiseach and Minister Richard Bruton rolled into Castlebar  to launch the glossy ‘Action Plan for Jobs 2015-2017’. Mr Kenny said that while the recovery was beginning to reverberate across the country, the Government was keenly aware it was not yet being felt everywhere, and noted that each action plan recognised the needs of the individual regions.
“The west of Ireland was hit really hard,” he acknowledged, but added that employment – at 17.2 percent at the height of the recession – is now down to 10.5 percent in the west. He also stressed that Government’s role was  as a ‘facilitator’ to the various agencies working in the different sectors. Mr Kenny cited the success of the Wild Atlantic Way and the fact that Ireland West Airport Knock was adding new destinations to its schedule.
“We hope to have the deficit eliminated by the end of 2017 and that will create a whole new mood change in the country,” he said.
Enda Kenny insisted the aim was to develop confidence in each region to ensure the plan is implemented optimally.
“While you’d like to think that because the Government has come to town that jobs can be turned on like that, it’s not that way, it never was,” he said.
Speaking to The Mayo News afterwards, Independent Castlebar county councillor, Michael Kilcoyne, highlighted the fact that up to 400 jobs were announced for Castlebar over two years ago and only six of them have materialised.
Kilcoyne said: “There is nothing really new in this plan. For the past five years nothing has been delivered and people will get hungry waiting another five years for jobs. There were 150 jobs promised for Northgate [in healthcare and public services] in 2013 and there has been six jobs delivered – and there is no sign at all of the Opensparkz jobs.”
“We need concrete jobs, Taoiseach,” he said.
Meanwhile, Minister Bruton conceded that: “The west is a region which has faced major problems over recent years. Between 2008 and 2011, 27,400 jobs were lost in the region, almost 60 percent of these were in the construction sector alone. Emigration skyrocketed. However, in recent years the region has bounced back, with 5,000 jobs created in the past year.”
Whether any of those jobs were created in Mayo remains unknown.
While turning the sod for an IDA advance factory on the same day intimated hope, for Fianna FΡil’s Cllr Blackie Gavin it was more about optics than real jobs since the county town is replete with empty buildings in Government ownership.  
Deputy Dara Calleary, Fianna FΡil’s shadow spokesman on jobs, observed that the action plan was ‘full of vague promises and reheated ideas which have been floated numerous times over the past 18 months’.
He highlighted the fact that the huge skills base that had been developed through the Corrib Gas project was already being lost to the UK. He also noted that neither Ballina or Erris were even mentioned in the action plan.  
“Forty-two percent of Ireland’s GDP is centred in Dublin in comparison, for example, to 20 percent [of the UK’s GDP] in London. The process for creating regional jobs has been in place now for over a year, but the figures are saying nothing has happened. There have only been two IDA visits to Mayo so far this year, while there have been 28 to County Galway and 176 to Dublin,” Deputy Calleary said.

Taoiseach's perspective on the job numbers game
LAST week Taoiseach Kenny sent out a press release stating that recent IDA figures showed the authority had created ‘500 IDA supported jobs’ in Mayo since 2011. He said this was a growth of 16 percent on 2010 figures but when The Mayo News asked the Taoiseach’s spokesman to break down these figures, we were told:  
“Individual breakdown on IDA figures is not available as it is deemed commercially sensitive information.”
The spokesman confirmed that since this Government’s Action Plan for Jobs was implemented in 2012 there had been 3,100 additional new jobs created in the west [that is the entire region] with the number of people employed increasing from 177,100 to 180,200.
He also noted that the number of  people on the live register in Mayo has fallen by 948 (or nine percent) in the last year alone and that since 2012 when the Government originally launched its Action Plan for Jobs, the live register in Mayo has reduced by 2,531 (a 19 percent decrease).
The Mayo News sent questions to Deputy Michelle Mulherin about job creation but did not receive a response.

Council aiding 32 different companies
MAYO County Council’s Local Enterprise office provided a490,000 in grant aid to 32 companies in 2015 alone which directly led to the creation of 42 new jobs. The Acting Head of Mayo Enterprise, John Magee, told The Mayo News that this funding also sustained another 100 jobs. Mr Magee said that 60 companies were given financial assistance to grow their online capacity, with a related job creation potential of 67 jobs and that eleven companies successfully assisted with applications to MicroFinance Ireland, with 28 jobs created as a result.