‘ROLE OF A SPECIAL TASK FORCE NOW MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER’
WHETHER or not the new Government delivers on its promises of a post-LNG stimulus package for the Ballylongford Landbank and North Kerry, the economic future of the region depends primarily on the will and drive of its own people to forge a brighter economic future.
That’s what it comes down to at the end of the day as far as the man responsible for the region’s main industrial base is concerned.
Kerry Group founder Denis Brosnan told The Kerryman that a special task force represents the best structure the region can utilise towards achieving its hopes of a brighter future.
One is still effectively in place since Jimmy Deenihan and others set up the North Kerry Jobs Task Force in 2012, at a time when the region was reeling from the full effects of the recession and LNG remained mired in red-tape.
Fast forward eight years and it appears LNG is now a busted flush, leaving the people of North Kerry – in particular around the greater Landbank zone – more fearful than ever of the future in the face of the effects of the pandemic and the short shelf-life of the Tarbert Island power station, among a myriad other pressures.
The programme for government has gone so far as to pull the rug out from under the County Development Plan as it pertains to the area – LNG was a cornerstone of its economic strategy.
News of a Cabinet position for the county combined with fresh promises of a stimulus package within months have fallen on sceptical, but not necessarily closed, ears locally.
A few miles east along the road and the story could not have been more different until the pandemic struck, with Foynes and Limerick riding high on the back of a resurgent economy.
Denis Brosnan was in no small part the architect of that success in his role as chairperson of the Mid West Task Force – relentlessly driving efforts to harness the powers of agencies from the IDA to Limerick City and County Councils to the max to attract foreign direct investment.
Mr Brosnan described the news on the gas front as ‘another blow to the West of Ireland’ .
“It looks as if nothing will happen with that for the next five years, however long it might be it’s another blow to the West of Ireland.”
Across the Estuary, Shannon Airport is laid low by COVID, a fraction of its record pre-pandemic traffic landing and taking off.
“Perhaps now that Kerry has a Minister it will help a lot. The West of Ireland is in the same boat with jobs and industry all gravitating towards the greater Dublin area.
Somebody has to do something to reverse it.”
Among the aspirations of the Greens and government partners for the Landbank is the creation of a zone for landing power generated offshore by wind turbines.
It won’t be worth a hill of beans in terms of what it might deliver for locals, Mr Brosnan said: “It’s not going to be the job creator North Kerry needs. Maybe it will be good for the country, but it’s not going to be the job creator required to keep people at home and attract more to the area to work.”
Between the censuses of 2011 and 2016, the population of the region grew in the order of two per cent; growth, but paltry in comparison to the growth of many other parts of the county, where populations surged by nine to ten
per cent.
Meanwhile, the Council’s strategy for the economic future of North Kerry has also led to concern, with the Authority excluding the northernmost part of the county in its submission to the National Framework 2040 programme from its mooted Knowledge Economy Cluster zoning for IT and financial services; and from the Kerry Hub zoning for manufacturing and industry.
IT was a lifeline for Limerick’s transformation. “A lot of the heavy industry is in the past. In Limerick we didn’t place hope in building new factories, we took the view that the future was in information technology, so it’s a very different thing, and planning in that regard has moved on again, accelerated by COVID-19. Change is continuous,” Mr Brosnan said.
And change is the key concept. “Those who succeed are those who grasp that change is continuous.
“The best example I can use is that the task force in Limerick had to change what it was doing on three separate occasions and realise it’s never a case of saying ‘ the work is finished’ now, but of saying ‘ let’s pick up the next phase now’.”
Human capital was the bedrock upon which the entire success story was built, as has to be the case for North Kerry, he said.
“We started by saying ‘ we have to do it ourselves’. Maybe that was the difference. One saw the same thing happening in Limerick back then, the old industries were shedding jobs and we realised something had to be done to reverse the situation and that it would have to be the people of Limerick to actually bring about the changes. Obviously they were seeking help from Government, but it had to happen locally as we weren’t prepared to let the region continue suffering.
“Maybe that’s what North Kerry needs now.
“The North Kerry Task Force is still the best structure to achieve it, but you have to keep renewing it every four to five years. I kept it going for 12 years in Limerick to the point where it has a momentum of its own now, it became a living entity in its own right driving growth.
“It’s generating enough cash now to meet its commitments, providing for the full staff team, and generating income from the buildings it erected, now rented out. But it is important to change personnel. When one group has completed delivering on a certain phase, it’s time to bring in fresh faces and ideas to drive the next phase.”
Crucially, Limerick drew on European bank funding to realise its plans: “Limerick was the first to arrange European Investment Bank (EIB) and Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) funding into the regions in Ireland,” he said.
“But [you] must have the rationale and the plans on how you are going to use the funding, for specific projects.”
Re-energising the North Kerry Task Force is key, beginning by identifying clear, achievable objectives and the best people to help deliver on them.
“There are enough people with expertise in North Kerry to put their heads together, create jobs and drive the region on... and the first objective in my view should always be to have more people living in the area.”