Sir, - The Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Mr Coveney, stated on RTE's Morning Ireland (November 18th) that the loss of a 2,000 job Siemens plant in East Cork to Newcastle in England was due to the delays caused by our planning system with its right of third party appeals. This is somewhat misleading.
English regional authorities - have "off the shelf" sites fully serviced and carefully reserved, especially for projects of the size of Siemens. These sites, along with business parks and smaller industrial sites, each have sophisticated and mandatory criterion which are incorporated in their county and municipal plans. Thus, Newcastle could offer Siemens planning approval in one month on such a site.
Our county development plans offer no such a range of clearly detailed, graded, and serviced sites. Considerations of finance and workforce are in fact often more crucial than delays in planning procedure. By the Minister's own figures, Ireland's manufacturing bases is 45 per cent foreign owned compared to England's 16 per cent, figures that appear to blunt his argument.
If the Minister's energies were directed towards improving our vague and aspirational - and frequently obsolete - county plans and ensuring sufficient planning staff to implement them, we might not lose vital job prospects, while still preserving our planning system with its third party appeal system, the envy of many countries. - Yours, etc.,
An Taisce,
Taylor's Hall,
Back Lane, Dublin 8.