Chief Executive of Tralee Chamber Alliance, Kieran Ruttledge.
THE Chief Executive of Tralee Chamber Alliance has expressed his delight at the news that Tralee is to get an estimated €20m investment for a new facility to attract a major industry, but says he would now like to see things progress quickly.
Earlier today, the Government announced their €250m Regional Action Plan For Jobs which included plans for a major investment at the Kerry Technology Park, suitable for an advanced manufacturing facility.
“It obviously great news for Tralee, but what I’d like to see is that it progresses quickly,” said Kieran Ruttledge. “We’ve got a lot of unemployed people here in town and the sooner we can get them back working and investment in, the better it will be for the town.”
“We had a very good meeting with the Tanaiste and Arthur Spring last week. It was interesting that she referred to the possibility for investment in Tralee regarding the medical and pharmaceutical industry, so she obviously had it in her head, but couldn’t say anything at the time,” said Mr Ruttledge.
“What we want to do now is meet up with Martin Shanahan of the IDA and find out exactly what the plans are and see if we can help in any way. Anything we can do to move this on, we will do so,” said Mr Ruttledge who thanked the IDA and the Government for picking Tralee as one of the towns for investment.
While it’s early days and the type of industry needed hasn’t been identified yet, his understanding is that the jobs the facility will attract won’t be just high-skilled graduate jobs.
“They could be high-end manufacturing jobs and with the right training, the vast majority of the people unemployed could apply for those positions. So I wouldn’t say the employment level would be restricted. I’d be hopeful that what we’ll be able to do, is match the unemployed skill set that exists in Tralee with what’s needed in terms of the facility that’s built. There could be training involved, but we have great training facilities in Tralee,” he said.
