Tanaiste trying to destroy Shannon agency - SIPTU

The Tánaiste, Ms Harney was yesterday accused by SIPTU of trying to destroy any future for Ireland's only regional development agency.

Making the charge, SIPTU's western regional secretary, Mr Joe Cunningham, described as "scandalous" efforts by the Tánaiste to break up Shannon Development.

Mr Cunningham was responding to the Tánaiste announcement that up to 100 jobs at Shannon Development are to be transferred to Enterprise Ireland as a result of the organisation's decentralisation to Shannon.

In a letter to TDs in the midwest confirming the transfer of Shannon Development staff to Enterprise Ireland, Ms Harney said that it would make no sense to have two agencies in the same location performing the same functions.

The decision by the Tánaiste will halve Shannon Development's permanent workforce. The move coincides with Ms Harney currently considering transferring the control of the Shannon Free Zone to the incoming Shannon Airport Authority in order to keep the authority afloat.

Shannon Development generates €6 million in annual rental income from the zone and the proposal has already come under fire from Shannon Development's chairman, Mr Liam McElligott, and business interests in the Shannon region.

In her letter to the TDs, Ms Harney also said nothing to allay fears that Shannon Development would lose the valuable rental income from the free zone.

In response, Mr Cunningham said: "We are extremely concerned at the long-term damage the Tánaiste's proposals will have on Shannon Airport and the whole economy of the west of Ireland and we are calling on existing and prospective public representatives to publicly state their position on the Tánaiste's proposal before the local and European elections.

"Shannon Development has been directly responsible for making the mid-west region the most heavily industrialised region outside Dublin. It was the first Irish agency to bring foreign direct investment to Ireland. A number of world-first initiatives such as the Shannon Free Zone and mediaeval banquets have been copied all over the world. But under the Tánaiste's proposal, all that experience and achievement will be wiped out.

"The break-up of Shannon Development will affect more than the staff employed there. Over 130,000 employees in the west of Ireland are directly or indirectly working in companies and businesses that Shannon Development helps directly or nurtures through its business incubation facilities.

"It will take years for decentralised national agencies to get to the same level of local knowledge and give the same level of intensive local service that Shannon Development gives," Mr Cunningham said. Referring to the widespread opposition in the Shannon region to the Tánaiste's proposals for Shannon Development, he added: "The common factor in uniting such diverse interests is their concern at the appalling naivety and lack of common sense being shown by those forces that are intent on destroying, by stealth, one of the most successful State agencies ever."

Already, in the wake of the Tánaiste's decision to transfer the Shannon Development staff, Fianna Fáil deputy, Mr Tony Killeen, said that the future role of the agency now needed to be clarified, while Fine Gael's Mr Pat Breen said the transfer of Shannon Development staff was "a tremendous blow to the region".