*Offshore energy has been touted by the Interim Chief Executive of Clare County Council to keep the educated workforce in the county.
CLARE’s economic growth is not matching the national picture, the Interim Chief Executive of Clare County Council has said.
Addressing the first meeting of the Economic Development Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) of the current Council term, Carmel Kirby said the committee would work to explore over the next five years ways in which to increase the county’s economic growth.
She stated, “From a Clare perspective, we’ve been reflecting on the work we want this SPC to do, economic growth nationally is good and it is good into 2025, we’ve full employment in the country”.
Kirby said Clare remained “a well-connected county with motorway access, rail access, the whole lot. Shannon Industrial Estate is the largest industrial estate outside of Dublin, it is a great mix there with 250 companies, fifty percent involved in aviation and fifty percent in other sectors”.
“Outside of that we’ve a fantastic county, we’re well connected, from a quality of life perspective any business would want to set up in Clare,” Carmel noted.
Carmel maintained that Clare’s economic growth was not in line with other parts of the country. “The economic growth in Clare isn’t at pace with the national economic growth, that is something I’d like us to explore, we’ve a highly educated workforce in the count and actually the LECP came through this SPC in last term and it is important, we’ve a highly qualified and educated workforce but many of them are leaving to other economic centres like Galway or limerick, are we doing enough to keep them in the county and provide them with opportunities which is where offshore becomes very important and other sectors”.
She continued, “We’re within an hour of four or five major third level institutions, we need to maximise the opportunities for people. Tourism is not within the remit of this SPC but it is important nonetheless. Tourism is sustaining the economy in the county in a lot of ways”.
Cllr Tom O’Callaghan (FF) believed the Economic Development SPC was “a very important grouping, we’re trying to plan ahead and make the right decisions, the most important thing is to learn from other mistakes where other issues haven’t worked in other counties”. The Kildysart native acknowledged tourism had a “huge” role to play in the county. He said Shannon Airport had “the potential” to double its 2024 passenger numbers of two million to four million.
Many graduates from the county are now based abroad, Cllr Michael Shannon (FF) flagged. “We’ve a very educated economy, we’ve transport and infrastructure at our doorstep, we’ve a lot of educated people living abroad, one of my remits when I was running for the local elections was to try build something to attract these people back and bring with them their global experience. Clare is not catching up like Dublin or Cork with theinvestment coming in, we need to focus and get it right”.
Development and construction representative, Shane Joyce who is the youngest member of the SPC commented, “A lot of people my age are leaving, we need to have equal opportunities to get people home and present Clare as a county to come to”.
On the subject of housing, the project manager with Patrickswell based Joyce Building Contractors said, “Labour gets represented as an issue, there is a wealth of civil contractors with great experience in the county, those contractors are having to leave the county to maintain their workload, make use of what ye have in Clare, the Airport is something no other counties have and a unique aspect with a very strong construction workforce, labour is not a problem for ye here, it is about opening up sites and opportunities for that”.
