IDA given green light to build 51,000 sq ft advanced unit in Mullingar

Westmeath County Council has granted permission to the IDA for the construction of a new advanced unit at the IDA Ardmore Business Park in Mullingar.

The grant of permission is for what the IDA has described as an Advanced Building Solution consisting of office and light industrial/production spaces, measuring 51,000 square feet.

Deputy Robert Troy expressed delight today at the development, stating that it had been a project in which he had been deeply involved: "This was committed to as part of the IDA strategy published in January 21, and I was very pleased to ensure its inclusion during my time as Minister of State in the Department of Enterprise with the support of the Tánaiste."

Deputy Troy told The Westmeath Examiner this morning that he has already been in contact with the IDA to ensure the project goes to tender for construction without delay.

"And I will continue to promote Mullingar and the Midlands for foreign direct investment," he said.

In a presentation to members of Westmeath County Council in mid-2021, IDA officials said the organisation's target was to attract 25 new employers to Westmeath and Offaly over the three years up to 2024, and to facilitate that drive, it planned the new Mullingar building, and also one for Athlone.

The officials said that as well as this first planned unit, there were plans that down the line, they would work with Westmeath County Council towards provision of a further building in Mullingar.

Ken Whitelaw, IDA's Midlands Regional Manager revealed to the county council members that there are 44 IDA-supported companies across the four midland counties, employing a staff of 6308.

Of those figures, 3776 of the direct jobs and 3020 in spin-off jobs are in Westmeath, which has 22 IDA-client firms.

“We have found that for every ten employees employed by an IDA company, there are eight others indirectly employed. That ‘ripple effect’ means that we have nearly 11354 people in jobs that are supported by the FDI companies in the midlands alone.”

Denis Curran, Head of Regions, Property and Enterprise Development, said that the IDA’s strategy involves targeting certain sectors in which Ireland already has international recognition and credibility as an FDI location and he was glad to say that many of these sectors have a presence in the Midlands region such as technology, consumer business services, biopharmaceuticals, medical technologies, international financial services and engineering.

Within those six sectors he continued they would be focusing on advanced manufacturing software engineering and technology and R&D opportunities and global business services.