merrion street

The Government is committed to supporting job creation and enterprise development in our Gaeltacht communities. This includes attracting foreign direct investment as well as supporting indigenous business and enterprise.

HID Global Ireland Teo. has announced its decision to establish its new European Centre of Excellence in Galway City, and arising from this, to consolidate its operations and transfer its existing workforce from  An Tulaí, Baile na hAbhann to its new facility in the city. While this is disappointing news for the Gaeltacht area, I understand that there will be no job losses involved and that all of the employees currently based in An Tulaigh will be able to transfer to the company's facility in Galway City.

Needless to say every reasonable effort was made by An tÚdarás to retain HID Global's existing presence and to facilitate its proposed new development at its Conamara location where Údarás na Gaeltachta and the company have had a productive partnership over the past 17 years.

In that context, I wish to confirm that a meeting involving an tÚdarás, IDA and their parent Departments and Ministers Humphreys and McHugh , which I also attended,  was held in June 2018 . The meeting was held with a view to strengthening the communication and collaboration between the agencies.  In that context, HID Global was raised, among other issues.  As a result of this and further meetings, a Communications and Engagement Protocol on respective client engagement was signed by An tÚdarás and IDA in December 2018.  However, the decision as to whether and where to invest falls on the company and, in this case, HID Global has made its decision to move operations to Galway city.

In the interest of completeness, I should state that it has been confirmed that HID Global are not in receipt of any funding from IDA in respect of their decision to relocate to Galway city .

I understand that Údarás na Gaeltachta has, as part of its ongoing enterprise development strategy, begun the task of seeking alternative clients for the facility in An Tulaigh and that the organisation is committed to further developing Páirc Ghnó na Tulaí as a location for employment.

Employment figures for 2018, published by an tÚdarás in recent days, show that almost 3,000 people were employed in Údarás client companies in the Galway Gaeltacht at year end - which represented the highest employment figures since 2000. This, along with the large increase in Údarás na Gaeltachta’s capital budget this year, is a clear demonstration of the Government’s commitment to securing and nurturing employment in our Gaeltacht regions.