What’s the Minister’s big secret about Ballinasloe?

Is Ballinasloe the town the IDA forgot? The question was posed this week after the Jobs Minister, Richard Bruton, refused to give details of site visits by IDA clients to the County Galway town.

Minister Bruton, in a Dáil reply to Independent TD, Denis Naughten, declined to say how many visits by potential international investors were made to the town of Ballinasloe in the past five years. He also refused to give details of the numbers of visits made by potential investors in Ballinasloe that are clients of Enterprise Ireland.

The information sought was given in relation to Roscommon town and Boyle, which has prompted Deputy Naughten to ask if IDA and Enterprise Ireland have forgotten Ballinasloe.

The Minister hid behind “client confidentiality and commercial sensitivity” when refusing to answer questions about investor visits to Ballinasloe but he was willing to divulge this information about Boyle and Roscommon.

“So why the big secret with regard to Ballinasloe, unless there is nothing to tell?” asked Deputy Naughten.

Deputy Naughten claimed that Galway City is being pushed by IDA and Enterprise Ireland while not enough is being done to attract investment into Ballinasloe.

He added that Ballinasloe was suffering because it is promoted as being “40 minutes from Galway” rather than “ten minutes from Athlone”.

“It seems that Ballinasloe is the only town within the catchment of Athlone that is not benefiting from the fact that Athlone is now a major regional hub for the pharmaceutical and medical device sector. It also seems the fact that Ballinasloe is just 19 miles from Athlone IT is not being used to try to attract new industry to the town. Over the last 15 years we have seen the loss of over 700 direct jobs at AT Cross, Square D and Dubarry, along with major job losses in the health sector yet all the focus seems to be centralised around Galway City,” added Deputy Naughten.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.