Lack of Industry in Ardee

mise_me_fein_V2

Trying through Carrick there last weekend and it just occured to me that the two towns that have much the same population, seem to have it very differently when it comes to industry.

There's a good few factories in Carrick, even Dunleer has a few.

It's about time someone that represents Ardee locally or Louth nationally does something about it.

Any views?

europerson

I don't think that a proliferation of industry is a necessary condition for a town's economic success. Ardee has many more service-sector businesses than Dunleer, at least. I fail to see the necessity of having industry in a town, which is doing quite well from a tertiary-based economy. Sure, no-one would complain, if Galen had come to the town or anything similar, but it is improbable that Ardee's success would be compounded by industrial exapnsion any more than if the town had experienced manufacturing growth. A distinction, however, must be made between Galen, which is knowledge-based industry and, say, Lee Jeans-Hawksbay, which was not, and, as a result, had to move on. For the most recent figures available (2002), Dunleer has a lower level of unemployment, but surely this must have converged, if not swapped, with declines in Dunleer's labour market (Source: Louth County Development Board). Ardee is not suffering a depression, as evidenced by the increasing amounts of money being spent in the town year-on-year (adjusted for inflation). Sure, there is less industry, but this is a trend all across the developed world. Therefore, there is, I contend, little, if any, need for this issue to become overtly politicised.

mise_me_fein_V2

I disagree totally. If we had one large factory of some sort, you would have lots of people coming into the town, spending there cash in the town during lunch and maybe coming to the town on the weekends.

As it stands, Ardee is a dead town. We're 40 miles from Dublin. That's not too far, but it's not too close either. Too many people have to travel this distance every day. There should be some local employment.

europerson

mise_me_fein_V2 wrote:

I disagree totally. If we had one large factory of some sort, you would have lots of people coming into the town, spending there cash in the town during lunch and maybe coming to the town on the weekends.

There are many people coming into the town. They are not all based in a single factory, but rather spread out in local businesses. The people, who currently work in Ardee, have their lunches there and go out in the town at the weekend, all of which leads to further growth in the services sector. As it stands, Ardee in in a better situation, because there is no single large secondary-sector employer, who might very well close down and move its operations to a low-cost economy, especially if it were a multi-national company. Ardee has gained greater flexibility in its labour market by having several smaller businesses instead of depending on major industries. That said, of course, there still are industries (for example, Farrell's), albeit on a smaller (and more rational) scale, leading to several competitive advantages for Ardee. I think you are confusing the issue by blurring the lines between the nominal number of Ardee's inhabitants employed in the town, with the, I would think, more appropriate measure of the proportion of the town's inhabitants employed in the local area.

mise_me_fein_V2 wrote:

As it stands, Ardee is a dead town. We're 40 miles from Dublin. That's not too far, but it's not too close either. Too many people have to travel this distance every day. There should be some local employment.

I don't agree with this either. The majority of people, who travel to Dublin every day, are not employed by manufacturing companies, but usually services comapanies, no?

mise_me_fein_V2

It sounds like you are stating Ardee is better equipt in a situation where a manufacturing industry would leave than other towns, where a major loss of jobs would occur, since Ardee has no major industry.

Is this was you believe?

I wasn't stating that everyone travelling to Dublin is working in a manufacturing job. I was just saying they can't get work in Ardee. Lots of people work on sites, I think these people would rather work in Ardee.

europerson

mise_me_fein_V2 wrote:

It sounds like you are stating Ardee is better equipt in a situation where a manufacturing industry would leave than other towns, where a major loss of jobs would occur, since Ardee has no major industry.

Is this was you believe?

What I am saying is that Ardee is less dependent on major manufacturing employers, and, perhaps, this is a good thing. Look at what happens in Western towns, when large manufacturers close down. A useful case study is Ferbane in County Offaly, which suffered a severe economic downturn when the power station there closed. However, owing to local effort, the workers were retrained in a range of skills, which means that the economy there is recovering, but it is not solely based on one or two large skill-specific industries.

mise_me_fein_V2 wrote:

I wasn't stating that everyone travelling to Dublin is working in a manufacturing job. I was just saying they can't get work in Ardee. Lots of people work on sites, I think these people would rather work in Ardee.

Sites in Ardee? Ardee can only support a limited amount of building developments, and, therefore, the likelihood of all construction workers being employed locally is very slim. Such workers, like all workers, have to go where the work is. Building work cannot continue indefinitely at any given pace in a small town like Ardee. I'm sure there are better examples than the construction trades.

mise_me_fein_V2

So you think the risk of losing a job in a manufacuring workplace is a good enough reason not to have a job in a manufacturing workplace.

It's better to have work and lost[a job], than never to have worked at all.

I'm saying that it's not fair on people of a certain town to have to travel to work.

Miss Polaris

Ardee will probably not have an industry as everytime one applies for planning it is turned down by the good folk of the town....ususlly those with their own grant aided businesses.

So not likely to have industry, hospital (as roumered) or anything else on that scale as employers - they wont even accept Tesco or Lidl (Lidl might have got planning since thou)

Sad...

europerson

mise_me_fein_V2 wrote:

So you think the risk of losing a job in a manufacuring workplace is a good enough reason not to have a job in a manufacturing workplace.

It's better to have work and lost[a job], than never to have worked at all.

I'm just saying it's not a necessary condition to have manufacturing jobs. Such industries would probably be subsidised, and economics tells us that people are better off, when there is competition.

mise_me_fein_V2 wrote:

I'm saying that it's not fair on people of a certain town to have to travel to work.

It's unlikely that all the people living in Ardee will ever all find work that suits them in Ardee. That's just a way of life.

Miss Polaris wrote:

Ardee will probably not have an industry as everytime one applies for planning it is turned down by the good folk of the town

Good point. Are you actively lobbying the local representatives to attempt to bring industry to the town, mise_me_fein_V2?

mise_me_fein_V2

Yes I am. I was emailing Finnann Mc Coy.

Puddles

I have to agree with your opinion about about the lack of industry in Ardee. We lived in Drogheda all our life and we moved to Ardee five years ago. I recently applied for a job in Lidl (Which is nearing completion) and my husband actually went down and spoke to the builders there. They told him that in Drogheda, over 50 businessess petitioned against them coming into the town (including Tesco, Super Valu and Dunnes Stores) but it was the power of the public that got them in. I was told that they faced similar hostility when they applied for here. Whether people like it or not, this town is growing in population and Ardee needs more industry to sustain a healthy economic balance. More shops means more competition, more industry means more jobs. How can we possibly lose out!!!!