IDA Ireland has rejected as "petty" a claim that Kilkenny has received less support from the agency than other south-east counties. The Business Insight consultancy report, published yesterday, said Kilkenny received 11 per cent of the funds invested by State agencies in industrial development in the region in 1997, despite having almost 20 per cent of population.
Enterprise Ireland has also disputed assertions in the report, Investing in Kilkenny, drawn up by the former secretary general at the Department of Enterprise and Employment, Mr Kevin Bonner.
The report claims it is clear that efforts by the Government and the IDA to attract foreign direct investment "have concentrated on Dublin, Waterford, Cork, Clonmel and Carlow to the detriment of Kilkenny city and county".
A table of grant payments by the IDA and Enterprise Ireland in the south-east for 1997, produced in the report, shows that south Tipperary received £5,864,045 (36.9 per cent of the total); Wexford £4,251,456 (26.8 per cent); Waterford £3,089,986 (19.5 per cent); Kilkenny £1,723,615 (10.8 per cent) and Carlow £953,009 (6 per cent).
A second table shows that in a 10-year period, 1989-1998, 2,900 extra jobs were created in State-assisted enterprises. In Kilkenny an additional 426, or 15 per cent of the region's new jobs, were created in the same period. "All of this suggests that, in spite of its obvious advantages as a development location, Kilkenny lags behind the region in general when it comes to support from State agencies."
However, Mr Pat Loftus, the IDA's south-east regional manager, said it was recognised that the major urban centres had benefited most from inward investment, and the IDA was attempting to redress this.
He said a 50-acre business park had been established in Kilkenny, and similar projects were in place elsewhere in the region. Making "petty comparisons" between individual counties was not the way forward for the south-east.
Mr Michael McGuire, of Enterprise Ireland, also rejected the claims. He acknowledged that the net increase in jobs last year in Enterprise Ireland-supported companies was low in Kilkenny in proportion to other counties. This was because of the closure of the Runtal-radiator company in Thomastown.
Mr Fergus Cronin, the chairman of KIDCo, the development agency which commissioned the study, stressed that while Kilkenny had not had "anything like its share" of inward investment projects, KIDCo had an excellent working relationship with the IDA and Enterprise Ireland.