Chamber and local councillor urge TD's to work to attract jobs to Tullamore

19th August 2018

TULLAMORE and District Chamber of Commerce is urging local representatives to do more to attract new business into the town.

President of the Chamber, Ann Starling said: ''We need to be more fair about this. We need an equal footing. We have a Fine Gael/Fianna Fail government and two elected representatives from both parties from Offaly who need to do more to encourage business into the town,'' 

Ms Starling said she has contacted the regional manager of IDA Ireland in relation to the matter but to date she has received no response.

''Tullamore can not afford to lose any more jobs. I can't remember the last time the town received a new industry. I cannot see why we do not have more jobs as we are only 70 minutes from Dublin, we have an excellent train service and were voted the friendliest town in Europe.''

Ms Starling went on to outline the number of recent job announcements in the Midlands including 200 for Athlone with Mr Price to open a distribution centre there and a cheese factory for Portlaoise creating 300 jobs.

Meanwhile, in Tullamore 65 people are to be made redundant at Sennheiser at the Sragh industrial estate, halving the workforce.

Councillor Declan Harvey feels ''the IDA is letting Tullamore and Offaly down.''

Cllr Harvey said that ''in the last 4 years since my election as County Councillor, we have met three executives from the IDA and they said they are promoting Tullamore. We have land banks, green field space and brownfield sites. Everything is here and yet we are getting nothing.''

''Like all towns in the Midlands we need assistance to keep going. The Leaving cert students will be out now looking for jobs. All of them well educated and there is very little for them. I'm very disappointed in Fine Gael they don't seem to be doing anything. We need to put pressure on our three TD's to come up with something for Tullamore and Offaly. It's just not good enough,'' he added.