ed galek and peggy galek
58 minutes ago
CLEVELAND (WJW) — This week, the FOX 8 I-Team challenged another local leader on what he got for his money by sending elected officials to Ireland.
Our inquiries with Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne revealed that no new companies have yet committed to moving from Ireland to Northeast Ohio.
Last year, a group of local leaders flew to Ireland, paid for by your tax dollars.
Officials called it a trip to bring new business and jobs here. But in November, it was discovered that Cleveland had no evidence that Irish companies had decided to move there.
So this week, we also spoke with county executives. Chris Ronayne also traveled to Ireland.
“What came out of that?” we asked.
A county executive said: “We have met with one company in particular from Dublin.
“What I’m trying to do is keep in touch with the technology companies that I met during my visit to Dublin. We continue to have a dialogue,” he added.
We further asked: “But at this point, has anyone committed to coming here?”
Ronayne said, “You’ll have to ask the consul general. But in a sense, we have a lot of irons, which is why things like this happen.”
Mr Ronayne said the visit could lead to at least one local company setting up operations in Ireland.
Back in November, Justin Bibb, the Cleveland mayor’s right-hand man, admitted that the number of commitments from Ireland was still zero at the time.
Local leaders visited in May to promote new air service from Cleveland to Ireland.
Records show taxpayers paid for the mayor and one aide, the Cuyahoga County executive and an aide, the city council president and county council president. We were told it would cost about $3,000 per person.
Meanwhile, Team NEO’s vice president said he was optimistic that it would eventually yield results.
He said three companies from Ireland visited our region as a result of a trip undertaken by local leaders in May.
Now private economic development group Team NEO hopes to use the visit to persuade Irish companies to set up business here.
“We’re hopeful that these things will happen,” Mark Owens said. “In many cases, these companies need to go back to their investors, boards and stakeholders to make sure this makes sense for them.”
The companies visited were two healthcare companies and one IT company.