Changes in the way Enterprise Ireland supported investors should help encourage more investment outside Dublin, according to the organisation's chief executive. The body would also continue its practice of taking equity positions in new and established companies.
Mr Dan Flinter was the keynote speaker at the County Meath Investment Showcase 2000, held last Thursday at Fairyhouse Racecourse. He was the final speaker in a very busy half-day programme during which almost 200 potential investors were told about the benefits of directing funding towards the Royal County.
Ireland's rapid growth over the past few years had brought about a dramatic change in the commercial climate in which Irish based firms operated, Mr Flinter said. This "brings with it new challenges, new opportunities and a need for new business development solutions required to help them achieve the scale necessary to maintain competitiveness and grow on the world scale".
It had also required changes in the way that Enterprise Ireland operated, he said, and how it handled client companies. It was adjusting its programmes and this would "have a positive impact on larger-scale Dublin-based companies seeking to establish new expansion projects in the regions".
The conference heard that Co Meath's gross domestic product placed it in 22nd place of the 37 county entities in Ireland. Chief economist at Davy Stockbrokers, Mr Jim O'Leary, discussed this and other economic factors related to the county and its output.
This relatively low placement in the GDP league table hid the fact that the county had a high-income level per head of population, standing at 97 per cent of the national average.
"The explanation for this is that a very high proportion of the population of Meath work outside the county and Meath is not particularly industrialised," he said.
More than 43 per cent of the working population in the county travelled 10 miles or more to work, he said, a figure well above the national average. Of these commuters, 76 per cent used their private cars rather than any form of public transport.
"The typical industry is low tech, labour-intensive, small in size and has very low productivity," Mr O'Leary said. He welcomed the designation of Navan as a development centre, however, adding: "It will be good for the county which is relatively underdeveloped and offers great opportunities for growth and prosperity."
Navan's special status as a development centre would bring much investment to it in the coming years, according to Mr Joe Crockett, Assistant Co Manager with Meath County Council. "These plans are a recognition by the planning authorities that if you are developing a major centre of population, you must have all facets there."
The managing director of Case Information Ireland Ltd, Mr Liam McMahon, described why his high technology company chose to locate in Co Meath. "The county is getting the simple things like infrastructure and customer service right and it is attracting environmentally friendly companies to the area. We in Case are delighted to be in Meath and we are working with the IDA to encourage more companies to set up in the business park in Navan," he stated.
A senior officer for information services within Meath County Council, Mr Tom my Kavanagh, provided an overview of the contents of the county's new website. It contained the county's development plan, but also a wealth of statistics and information needed by any company considering an investment or facility in the county.
The website was officially launched by the chairman of the Council, Mr Brian Fitzgerald, who said it was part of the promotional strategy being adopted by the county. At the site "every potential developer and investor will have at the switch of a button" whatever information the county had available to it, Mr Fitzgerald said.
www.business.meath.ie
