John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The witnesses coming before this committee are in a very difficult position; the Secretary General of a Department here does not exactly compete with the Secretary General of a similar department in France, but I know when I ask Mr. O'Leary a question he does not want to state we have a problem here. He needs to be careful with regard to how he expresses where we are because it is a competitive environment and I understand this. I will change my questioning and discuss the regional aid guidelines or incentives. Approximately nine months ago Mr. O'Leary made a comment which was picked up by a number of people including me. He stated the incentives were not working and that when it came to areas outside of Dublin and Cork the incentives in place based on unemployment figures were not attracting companies to those locations which received the least amount of foreign direct investment. The map has been redrawn and there is an extension of six months which, as I understand it, will allow a transition phase while the old incentives continue. What type of input did the IDA have with the Department and the Commission when it came to redrawing the map for these incentives?