One in two Galway city workers commute from county

The revelation that half of all those working in Galway city commute from the county has prompted renewed calls for the IDA to focus its attention on the provision of jobs in rural areas.

There are extensive IDA and State-owned land banks in towns like Ballinasloe, Tuam, Athenry, Loughrea and Gort – but all are said to be stagnant through the lack of investment over the years.

And while Tuam has a significant employer in Valeo, where over 1,000 people are working, it still has more than 20 acres of IDA-owned lands which have been lying idle for years and the same is true of the other towns in East Galway.

Now, it has been suggested that the IDA provide members of Galway County Council with an audit of all of their land banks while the amount of other State-owned lands and properties, that are currently not being utilised, should also be revealed.

According to the Galway City Development Plan there are over 41,000 people working in the city and almost 21,000 of these are from the county who commute on a daily basis. The plan has ambitions on developing the numbers being employed in the city.

But Galway County Council member Cllr Aidan Donohue, who has embarked on a campaign to force the IDA to utilise their land banks across the county, said that these figures were responsible for the current traffic nightmare that is experienced in the city on a daily basis.

“We have a situation in which the IDA are determined to get more and more jobs into the city which will result in further chaos rather than focusing their attention on marketing the towns in rural Galway where they have extensive properties that are currently left idle.

“When the new Gort to Tuam motorway opens at the end of this year it will mean that all of the towns in East Galway will have such accessibility that it should prove attractive for investors. This is a key marketing tool when it comes to job creation,” Cllr Donohue added.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.