Another record year for job creation was reported yesterday by the chief executive of the Industrial Development Authority (IDA), Mr Kieran McGowan. Foreign-owned companies, assisted by the IDA, created 15,170 new jobs in 1997 and, when job losses (including the Seagate closure) are taken into account, the net increase in the number of people at work in multinational companies amounted to 8,950. When this astonishingly good performance - contrasted with other European Union countries where the number of industrial jobs is declining - is linked to the equally impressive work of Forbairt, you get a strong impression of the vigorous growth of the Celtic Tiger. Forbairt recorded its best job creating performance in 20 years with the creation of 14,000 indigenous jobs overall, giving a net increase of 5,500 people at work. Between the two agencies, the rate of increase in the number of net new industrial jobs grew by more than 20 per cent in 1997.
In making his presentation, Mr McGowan said continuing success would depend on two key elements: ease of access between the Irish regions and mainland Europe and the ongoing availability of a skilled and flexible workforce. In the first instance, investment and improvement in roads, in shipping and in regional airports, was vital, while the response by young people and their parents to the new initiatives being taken in schools, colleges and universities and their willingness to build new types of careers, would be of great importance.
Three-quarters of the new positions created last year were in electronics/engineering and in international services. And figures produced by the IDA show a continuation of the trend, evident since 1994, whereby the East/Dublin region secured more than half of all the new jobs created. In that regard, Mr McGowan was clearly aware of complaints from the regions - and particularly from the deprived counties of Mayo, Roscommon, Leitrim and Cavan - that they were not benefitting from the inflow of investment and jobs. Over 60 per cent of new projects agreed in 1997 had been for areas outside the East region, he said, but many of the projects were at start-up phase and were not reflected in the job-creation figures. In that regard, he committed the IDA "to achieve as much regional dispersal as is possible and consistent with the availability of appropriate infrastructure."
That commitment will provide cold comfort for the most deprived areas of the country, particularly in the context of Mr McGowan's earlier comment that improved infrastructure and connections with Continental Europe, involving investment in roads, ports and airports, was crucial to success. In other words, unless the Government devotes considerable additional capital resources to upgrading the transport framework outside of Dublin and the East region, the IDA will not be able to persuade a sufficient number of industries to locate there. Improving the skills and educational qualifications of young people in rural Ireland without parallel action by Government on infrastructure, will be of little help in redressing the present industrial imbalance.