Industrial development in Glenties
The Minister cited 527 jobs created across a wider town group and said the IDA was negotiating to buy a site in Glenties. He also pointed to nearby Killybegs employment and its approved projects, while Gallagher stressed Glenties’s unemployment and lack of recent job creation.
asked the Minister for Industry and Energy the steps that have been taken to provide industry for Glenties, County Donegal.
Comment on this
I am informed by the Industrial Development Authority that in its industrial plan it set a target for the creation of 1,000 new jobs in the town group of Ballyshannon, Bundoran, Donegal, Killybegs and Glenties. In the first four years of the plan, IDA succeeded in creating 527 new grant-aided jobs in this town group.
The IDA are at present negotiating the purchase of a 2-acre site at Glenties, which would be suitable for industrial development.
Comment on this
Is the Minister aware that the jobs he speaks of may embrace the area around Glenties but no new jobs have been created in Glenties for some time? Would he look at Glenties and its hinterland specifically? Is the Minister aware that the area embracing Glenties and Ardara to which I referred in the first question has an extremely high level of unemployment, one of the highest levels in rural areas? In view of this will he instruct the IDA to take a personal interest in this area? Is the Minister aware that Glenties is surrounded by a Gaeltacht and, whereas Glenties is the responsibility of the IDA, the outskirts are the responsibility of Údarás na Gaeltachta. There seems to be a passing of the buck but the buck should stop with the IDA. Services in the town are under the jurisdiction of the IDA and not of Údarás na Gaeltachta. I am sorry for going on for so long but Tallaght got 15 minutes and Donegal is more important to me.
Comment on this
As I told the Deputy already, the IDA are negotiating for the purchase of an industrial site in Glenties. They are near the Údarás na Gaeltachta area and, presumbly, benefit from industrial promotion there which is on more intensive basis than the IDA are capable of. Glenties and Ardara are, respectively, 17 and 12 miles from Killybegs, which is a large centre of employment. The IDA approved eight projects in 1982 in Killybegs which are planned to employ 187 people in full production.