The Mid West – The Basket Case of Ireland

If Ireland was recently considered the economic basket case of Europe, (although we hope perceptions may be beginning to change), is it a case that the Mid-West is the basket case of Ireland?  As a proud Limerick man having grown up, received an education and spent the past 12 years working locally, it pains me considerably when I read negative press about this region.  Negative press however tends to focus on the ‘image’ of the city, on the McCarthy Dundons et-al and although damaging from a tourism point of view and even potentially from an investment point of view, I’m pretty confident that this has little to do with the woes of the region.

The mid-west has been let down at the highest possible level for a considerable period of time and the finger of blame lies squarely at the foot of successive Governments.  Not much point I hear you say in laying blame, but if we are to move forward we must identify the issues and assign responsibility to those who are in a position to make some real changes.

The Mid-West is generally defined as Limerick and surrounding counties; it refers to the city and county of Limerick, Shannon up as far as Ennis, North Tipperary and parts of Kerry as far as Tralee.  The Celtic Tiger brought one lasting benefit to the region as it did to most of Ireland - it provided us with a road infrastructure that, while not perfect, is much advanced from 20 years ago.  The downside of course to the improved road structure is that it has gotten a lot easier for people to work and study away from Limerick; and sadly that’s what’s happening.

Back to the responsibility bit, - Shannon Airport.  For many years the Government forced Trans Atlantic traffic to utilise Shannon, which seems to have artificially supported a relatively successful airport. However, once that crutch was removed the airport has gone into freefall.  Having been there on two occasions recently to fly to London, I was horrified at the departures lounge! Is it closed today I asked myself, where is everybody else? Where is Ryanair?  God knows O’Leary flies us into some obscure airport destinations around Europe in the guise of flying to Paris, Amsterdam etc. surely given our aforementioned location and road network Shannon offers a better prospect to passengers than Faranfore in Kerry which is currently the ‘regions’ airport of choice for Ryanair?

Minister for Transport; Leo Varadkar has just announced plans to separate Shannon Airport from the Dublin Airport Authority and bring it together with Shannon Development in a single entity.  While this has to be seen as good news, particularity given the fact that its current debts of €100m will remain with the DAA, it is equally somewhat disconcerting when one reads the line in the press release;

“There is still a lot of detail to be worked out around the new structure and operation of the new entity, but today's announcement is undoubtedly a major step towards creating a new entity which will act as a catalyst for growth for the wider region in the years to come".

Worryingly there appears to be a trend with this particular Government around making announcements and then 'figuring out the detail' afterwards and we need only remind ourselves of many such topical issues recently which simply, have been chaotic at implementation.  However the approach appears correct so lets firstly get Ryanair back in (give it to them if we have to) but lets get footfall into Shannon. The benefits for the region for business and tourism go without stating.

We are all well aware of the committee put in place by the previous Government and chaired by Denis Brosnan of Kerry Group, fame, the committee who continues to work on the implementation of a much needed strategy to combine Limerick City and County Councils.  Their work is ongoing and thankfully the decision to combine both councils is now irreversible with much of the implementation already started.  I was pleased to attend a recent IBEC conference and to hear at first hand much of the work that is already done.  It’s an enormous task, but if done correctly, will be the blueprint for many similar amalgamations throughout the country.  You really would have to be from Limerick to realise how crazy the current structure is with the HQ of the county council in the same car park of one the largest shopping centre complexes in Munster but due to boundaries drawn up many many years ago, the area is in the County. And a short trip across town, one finds the proud offices of the city council with their very own dedicated resources replicating their country cousins!

Regeneration continues at pace - many of us wonder what its doing! The cry from the regen people is that it’s not all about helping the disadvantaged communities of inner city Limerick. Yes that’s a big part but equally its about revitalising the city, getting footfall back into town, reenergising the streets.  The problem with this is the noises are right but there is little to be seen on the ground.  Regeneration appears to be having mixed success within the disadvantaged communities and where the investment is going to come in terms of rejuvenating the city remains a mystery to me and many others.  The philanthropic prowess of JP McManus, Chuck Feeney & Co. while always an ace in the pack for the region, is of little benefit without a clear plan, and without clear direction.  Until someone takes hold of where all this is going then I cannot see where ongoing meaningful funding can come from.

Industry is of course our biggest issue in the region, its not all bad news here thankfully but our challenges are linked to much of the above.  We have, over the years managed to grow and develop successful indigenous and multinational companies, many of which seem to stem from the progressive move of the Sean Lemass era when the Shannon Free Zone was created, leading to a culture of American multinational companies setting up in the region.  While many of those companies from the late 60’s / early 70’s have long since departed, it’s interesting to see that amongst our flagship companies today such as GE, Analog, Stryker, Dell, Genworth and others, close examination will trace their roots directly back to this period.  Its shocking however that a Fianna Fail led Government for 13 years with cabinet representation from Limerick failed to substantially move the region forward economically and to replicate in any way what was achieved in our two rival regions of Galway and Cork.  Cork the Pharma capital (not to mention the rest) and of course Galway the Med Device capital…..what has the Mid-West? A spatter of manufacturing, some med device, some ICT, some aircraft leasing, some Financial Services. All brilliant in themselves and all very welcome but lacking in something to ‘hang our hat on’ as a region.  I sat at a breakfast meeting in the city recently and listened to Minister Michael Noonan address this very issue, he highlighted much of what I have said above and told us that his office rang Barry O’Learys’ office (CEO IDA) every 2 weeks and asked “is there anything for Limerick? That’s the Minister for Finance’s answer, not because he himself is a Limerick man, I respect he has a duty to the entire nation, but how can the Government policy for the mid-west be, ring the IDA every fortnight to ask them “if there is anything for Limerick”?

At the same briefing the Minister talked about the Governments policy to build a sound economy for the future, investing in education and developing the knowledge economy. Where have we heard that before? Yet every third level institution in the country continue to beg the Government for funding; that they cannot possibly deliver what is required with a decreasing investment year on year, coupled with an even heavier burden being placed on students as government assistance to study from undergrad right up to PhD all suffer the consequence of cuts? Luckily for the region we have an established University, two outstanding Institutes of Technology, a teacher training college that is renowned nationally and internationally as well as a number of other third level institutions that all provide a wonderful service. However, it’s equally concerning to hear of the challenges that each of these face, particularly around funding.  In an ever-increasing competitive international market it’s more than concerning how far down the rankings Irish universities are in general.

The mid-west has what appear to be amongst some of Ireland greatest challenges as a region, some things are being tackled but the degree of rhetoric versus actual action coming from Government and their appointed agencies is very worrying.  Lots of announcements, lots of noise, lots of figuring out the detail later! Its time to have joined up thinking before the entire region gets left behind.   

Someone need to take responsibility, we need a Minister for the Mid-West.

Bobby O'Connor Business Director
HAYS Recruiting experts worldwide

T: +353 61 435 750
E: bobby.oconnor@hays.com 

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