Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not disagree with the Deputy. While the IDA encourages foreign direct investment to come to Ireland, when it is successful the company it has attracted selects the location. The IDA does not select it. The companies are selecting Dublin, Cork and Galway for a variety of reasons and the selection tends to be urban rather than rural. Previously, there was a variation on incentives, with bigger incentives available in certain parts of the country. That attracted investment because an extra margin was available. The incentive range has equalised for most modern industry and is not as great a factor. Important factors now are the 12.5% tax rate and the ability of a skilled and educated labour force which tends to drive industry towards university cities. Another factor is proximity to an airport, preferably an international airport.

Increasingly, the literature suggests that industry is attracted to locate in creative communities, communities that are pluralist, non-judgmental, and engage with and accept different lifestyles and cultures. These are the kind of cities that are growing rapidly and they attract the creative kind of people who are the lifeblood of modern industry. We are living in a very connected society and sometimes people locally promoting their own location do not see the wider factors. In what I have described, Dublin is a great fit at this stage because it has become a most interesting multicultural, non-judgmental place to live where different lifestyles are appreciated and people can go about their business. These issues are well worth considering when we are looking at incentives.

The solution for the constituencies of Deputy Doherty and me involves incentivising SMEs, having regard to the needs of exporting SMEs and the level of entrepreneurship that can be encouraged around the country. Entrepreneurship is not confined to a number of locations. There is now an emerging entrepreneurial group of young people who we meet all the time. We must start thinking about how to incentivise them to form the new base for industry, which has a more regional application. I have departed from the Bill but Deputy Doherty prompted me with his reflections on the IDA.