Government update on Greystones Media Campus amounts to nothing for Wicklow – John Brady TD
Wicklow Sinn Féin TD John Brady has described an update he received from Minister for Finance Jack Chambers in relation to progressing the Greystones Media Campus as simply not good enough, as it effectively amounts to zero progress being achieved on the development of the campus, after Brady had raised the issue in the Dáil chamber recently. Despite the fact that the Irish taxpayer, through the Irish Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) is an investor in the Media Campus, which has the potential to bring up to 1,500 jobs to Wicklow, the government has done nothing to advance the project.
Brady said:
“Despite the fact that I have raised this issue in the Dáil chamber, have written to Ministers Chambers, and McGrath on the matter, and have spoken at length in media on the issue, the government have done nothing to advance the Greystones Media Campus.
It is now over two years since it was announced that a €300 million media campus was to be developed in Greystones with a view to opening in 2024. It was envisaged that the campus would have created 450 jobs during the construction phase would have led to 1,500 at the 44-acre film and TV production site.
ISIF invested €24 million of the Irish taxpayer’s money into the project. Basing its decision on an increasing global demand for film studio infrastructure, and Wicklow’s attractiveness as a film location, particularly with two highly successful TV and film production studios already based in the county.
The government need to be clear here, they have a responsibility to the Irish taxpayer, and to the people of Wicklow. They need to be the catalyst to get this project moving again. It is a huge project with enormous potential for our county.
Wicklow is the home of film making in Ireland. The potential that the Greystones Media Campus offers for young people here is huge. Wicklow needs this investment. Particularly given the failure of the IDA to develop a strategy to attract investment into the county.
In the first quarter of this year there were zero IDA site visits to the county, and only two in the whole of last year. There is no government strategy to attract jobs to Wicklow. This is why we cannot afford to allow the government let projects like the Greystones Media Campus to fall.
The absence of a focused job creation strategy, leaves Wicklow at risk of losing its community vitality, instead becoming a place where people spend most of their time stuck on the road rather than building a life locally. The campus needs to be delivered.
We need to see the government intervening directly to get this project back up and running, Wicklow needs to see jobs investment, it needs to see investment in the economic architecture of the county. It needs to see a commitment that will allow workers to leave behind the daily grind of having to spend several hours a day commuting to Dublin.” ENDs