Shannon/Limerick - A region on it's knees?

[rebs23]

After watching Prime Time last night it struck me how it's always bad news about the Mid West whether it's job losses potential job losses or just plain bad news about crime.
I work up around there a day or two every week for the last 7 years and to me it just seems to be getting worse. Everyone is worried about Dell closing or other companies shutting down or the status of Shannon Airport or else its people regailing me with tales of how tough the place is. It just seems to be non stop bad news.
It is a region that is definitely facing tough times ahead because of its over concentration of manufacturing jobs and the removal of a lot of the perks that Shannon Airport enjoyed (free zone and flyover), a lot of bad publicity around crime, an inability to attract more investment and an over reliance on tax based development incentives.
It seems that the coming downturn will definitely leave some regions of this country worse than others.
Should the government provide tax breaks for development in the regional cities?, tax breaks for companies relocating to regional centres? decentralisation of government departments or should we all just move to the Dublin-Belfast economic corridor (or possibly Cork) and use the rest of Ireland for weekend breaks and cheese making?

[jebus]

The signs of recession are in Limerick alright, but they're also all over the country, just maybe a bit more advanced in the Mid-West. Give it 5 years and Prime Time will be doing a special about Ireland on it's knees

[pete]

Should the government provide tax breaks for development in the regional cities?, tax breaks for companies relocating to regional centres? decentralisation of government departments or should we all just move to the Dublin-Belfast economic corridor (or possibly Cork) and use the rest of Ireland for weekend breaks and cheese making?

Is "the West" a big area for cheese making? Would have gone with the South West myself.

I would guess Dells days are numbered & a move to eastern Europe a possibility. I could see them moving the low skilled manufacturing jobs but keeping the Sales & Support jobs here.

IMO the Shannon Stop over made people soft & delayed the preparation for the real world. I would suspect there are already tax breaks for companies to locate outside of Dublin - be that Cork, Limerick or Galway...?

[rebs23]

The signs of recession are in Limerick alright, but they're also all over the country, just maybe a bit more advanced in the Mid-West. Give it 5 years and Prime Time will be doing a special about Ireland on it's knees

I suppose only time will tell but it seems that certain areas will definitely be more affected than others. Limerick/Shannon in particular look badly exposed at the moment. The big question though is are we happy with the way this country is developing? How do we encourage investment outside of Dublin? Are tax breaks the way? a coherent Decentralisation policy, etc?

It just seems crazy to me the way this country is developing (East all powerful and chewing up infrastructural spending and the rest, it seems anyway, getting the crumbs from the table). In particular the lack of funding/hurry in developing the Western Motorway and Rail corridor is wrong when white elephant projects such as the (5-6Billion?) Dublin Metro are getting the go ahead. Surely there will be more benefit for more people having a Motorway and railway from Sligo-Galway-Limerick-Cork-Waterford?

[jebus]

Thats the way this rotten country is set up though Rebs, all power to Dublin and **** the rest of the country. I mean apparantly the major transport issue in this country is extending the LUAS line to North Dublin City Still from living in both the East and the West I can happily say that I'm very happy to be West Irish, the people over here in the East seem so much more put upon than us lot. And in fairness I think the West's greatest asset is how beautiful the countryside and the coastline is with regards to where tourists will wnat to flock to, even in recession we could probably still bank on American's keeping some money flowing into places like Cork, Kerry, Clare, Limerick, Mayo and Galway

[pete]

When you live in Dublin there is no need to even know that the rest of the country exists unless you need to travel through for weekend away.

I think the development of the national infrastructure is a separate topic.

Driving through the country (see 1st paragraph) I have always got the impression that the "market towns" (is that the correct term?) have done well in recent years if I compare nothing else but the prices & size of the cars/jeeps.

[kingdom hoop]

Driving through the country (see 1st paragraph) I have always got the impression that the "market towns" (is that the correct term?) have done well in recent years if I compare nothing else but the prices & size of the cars/jeeps.

I would have thought a good few of the midland towns are struggling. Tullamore is a good town and obviously Port Laoise is solid but the smaller ones aren't all that vibrant I'd guess, in particular that shíthole on the Limerick - Dublin road, Mountrath (what a horrible town that is, seemingly one shop in five is OPEN!) Maybe they're stuck in the twilight zone of being too close and too far from Dublin at the same time. I'm not too au fait with the area though to be fair.

As for the mid-west, Jebus, you nearly jerked a tear out of me there, a similarly proud west of Ireland man who's traversed to the east of the country! We're definitely the superior ones! Your point about the west always being able to rely on USAians coming is spot on, they adore that part of the world. Play golf for ten days, I caddy, or used to anyway, for them, and then maybe head to Dublin for a few days depending on the make-up of the group. The great thing about tourism is the multiplier effect, like me earning big bucks as a caddy, that nourishes the service industry. But while tourism may be a reliable source of income one wonders if seasonality, declining manufacturing and lack of infrastructural investment are overpowering forces on the balance sheet.

Is "the West" a big area for cheese making? Would have gone with the South West myself.

Not south-west either really. The Golden Vale area, ie mid-east Munster - Kilmeadan, Mitchelstown, Cashel, famous names in the cheese industry. Mmmmm.

[rebs23]

Not south-west either really. The Golden Vale area, ie mid-east Munster - Kilmeadan, Mitchelstown, Cashel, famous names in the cheese industry. Mmmmm.

All the above bland crap, nothing like a Goleen Goats cheese. In fact anything from West Cork food wise, all those german, dutch and english hippy specials !

[pete]

All the above bland crap, nothing like a Goleen Goats cheese. In fact anything from West Cork food wise, all those german, dutch and english hippy specials !

Yeah I wasn't including big manufacturers as "cheese makers" in the tourism sense.

I think towns like Mouthrath & their kind (one horse towns on main road) will always be hell holes. By market towns I suppose I meant places like Mallow, Midleton & Macroom for Cork examples.

Places such as Dingle have higher property prices than most of Dublin & there will never be a recession down there. Food & drink is as expensive as anywhere (E10+ for takeaway fish & chips) although possibly not helped by local chieftain protecting himself by objecting to the planning permission of competitors.

[off topic rant over]

[Lim till i die]

I would guess Dells days are numbered & a move to eastern Europe a possibility. I could see them moving the low skilled manufacturing jobs but keeping the Sales & Support jobs here.

Once Dell goes this town is finished.

It's back to 1981 with us all. (Which as a fan of the football team I can see having benefits )

IMO the Shannon Stop over made people soft & delayed the preparation for the real world

Can you expand on this??

No offence I just don't really have a clue what your point is

[pete]

Maybe "soft" is a badly phrased but the Shannon Stopover made it seem like Shannon airport would always have passengers (just because people forced to stop there) & look what has happened after the recent AL commerical decision.

You can't force tourists to go to certain places. You have to make it attractive for them to want to go there in the first place.

[Lionel Ritchie]

Maybe "soft" is a badly phrased but the Shannon Stopover made it seem like Shannon airport would always have passengers (just because people forced to stop there) & look what has happened after the recent AL commerical decision.

You can't force tourists to go to certain places. You have to make it attractive for them to want to go there in the first place.

I didn't see the programme but that just appears to be more relevant to Shannon Airport and the tourism that comes through there -it's at best a contributary issue to anything that would have put a region "on it's knees" (though the Shannon situation doesn't help).

What's possibly left Limerick vulnerable is an over-reliance on a single "anchor-employer" on whom a good number of secondary and tertiary businesses are/have become reliant. It's not like it's the first time it's ever happened anywhere. Nor is it Mystic Meg stuff to predict that large multi-nationals will move on when they find another state or region even more willing to tip their toes for the privilege of having chicken-feed chucked to the locals. It's what they do.

What I've not heard too many say without a "told-you-so" finger-wagging emphasis on the friggin obvious is what exactly should have been done differently?