Sinn Féin general election candidate and councillor Conor D. McGuinness has said Waterford is being ‘left in the ha’penny place’ by the IDA and that successive Fine Gael enterprise ministers have allowed the county to be neglected when it comes to IDA interventions.
McGuinness said:
Figures release to Sinn Féin show that Waterford is bottom of the table when it comes to site visits by the IDA – receiving just 18 such visits in 2023, compared to 52 for limerick, 38 for Galway and 39 for Cork.
“The mission of the IDA is to attract inward investment and to create jobs. Site visits are an essential and proven part of the IDA’s strategy to bring investment and jobs into a given area.
“Waterford is being left in the ha’penny place by the IDA under the watch of this current Government and its precessors. Successive Fine Gael ministers have presided over an embedded imbalnce, in which Waterford is seen as the poor relation.
“Figures for the past ten years shows that the level of site visits to Waterford has stayed consistently low from 2013 to 2023, while IDA interventions in Galway, Limerick and Cork have drastically increased from much higher bases.
“Waterford had 14 site visits in 2013 and just 18 in 2023. Limrick by comparison had 23 in 2013 and 52 in 2023.
“The value of IDA visits is borne out by the difference in jobs growth over the last decade. Waterford recorded a very modest jobs growth between 2013 and 2023, in line only with population increases, while the number of IDA supported and created jobs in Limerick more than doubled in the same period.
“Waterford is being left behind when it comes to securing investment and creating jobs. Its time for the neglect and indifference to end. Waterford needs change, and a strong team to advance its cause on the national stage”
Conor D. McGuinness TD 