Minister Coveney welcomed to Offaly by local councillors

Minister Simon Coveney was welcomed to Offaly by Cllr Noel Cribbin and Cllr Neil Feighery recently.

The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment was given a broad outline of the issues in Offaly such as the lack of delivery from the state agencies including the IDA.

Cllr Cribbin said: “Offaly is being left behind in the jobs markets despite the fact that we are more than delivering in this new era of renewable power with wind farms and solar farms to be seen all over the county and particularly in North Offaly. I pointed out this to the Minister and the great opportunity there is now for big industry to be located in North Offaly where we have a massive Renewable Energy platform, three thousand acres site at Derrygreenagh in a great location on the M7 motorway and only 45 minutes from Dublin and that this area should be front and centre for every new industry looking to locate in Ireland.

“Our neighbours in Kildare, Meath and Westmeath are well done for industry's and jobs. It's high time that the people in Offaly got opportunities to work in their own area rather than spending hours on a daily basis commuting to work outside of Offaly,” added Cllr Cribbin.

“It was a great opportunity to get our message across to Minister Coveney and he was very interested in what we discussed and to bring our message to all.”