Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Indeed. I will take them in order. I can inform Deputy Calleary that the targets are based on an original five-year strategy. We do not tend to change them suddenly on the basis of something like a record year. We will not take last year's figures as the new baseline. IDA Ireland is a long-term operation. Its remit is to build strength in certain sectors. It operates in a long-term planning environment. I do not think it should suddenly change. Last year was certainly an exceptionally strong year. Even though 13,300 new jobs were delivered last year, it will still be a stretch to achieve this year's target of 13,000.

The Deputy also mentioned the 50% target. It is true that over a number of years, IDA Ireland has consistently found it difficult to achieve this target. Last year's figure actually represents a significant improvement on the previous year's figure, which was less than 25%. Last year, 35% of new jobs were created outside Dublin and Cork. This was a substantial step forward. There is no doubt that this target presents difficulties. The sort of mobile investment we are now seeing is different from the sort of investment we saw a number of years ago. As a result, this activity has become more focused on cities. As part of our efforts to counteract that, we have developed new initiatives like ConnectIreland, which has a better spread and offers regions the capacity to use their own resources to try to assist the foreign investment effort. As part of the review of foreign direct investment that is being undertaken, IDA Ireland is looking at the challenges that lie ahead and how we can best capitalise on them. That review will definitely look at the regional challenge. As the Deputy said, it has not been possible to deliver on the targets that have been set in that regard.

I am anxious to develop a more broad-based discussion on how a region can achieve competitive advantage for itself. In many regions, foreign direct investment has not been the backbone of the local economy - it accounts for a small percentage of that economy. There are areas in which there can be a legitimate expectation of building foreign investment. There has to be a strategy around that in the region. I think that needs to involve more stakeholders. It should not simply be a question of asking why IDA Ireland is not bringing more visits to the area. In the case of each region, a strategy needs to be developed that assesses the competitive advantage of that region and focuses on the elements of foreign direct investment which can build into that. Similarly, there is a need to look across the region. Enterprise Ireland, which is strong in many regions, has a much better regional spread.

In this context, there is a need to look more strongly at the existing base of companies. IDA Ireland has been doing this in the last 12 months, in particular. Perhaps that is reflected in its numbers. Approximately 70% of new jobs come from the existing base of companies. We need to work on the base of companies that we have at regional level. We should look at how we can build services in each region to meet the needs of companies that are already in the region. I accept that there is a need for a broader regional enterprise strategy. The sole focus should not be on IDA Ireland visits or IDA Ireland jobs, as if that represents the entire sum of what a regional strategy is about. The short answer to the Deputy's question is to assure him that a review has been commissioned. In addition, we must start to look at how we can shape a better regional strategy across all of our agencies and embrace stakeholders that are outside of our agencies.

The Deputy asked whether there are difficulties with the way IDA Ireland spends its money. I have no reason to believe there are difficulties in that regard. IDA Ireland has a strong system of evaluating the added value that companies bring. I have seen that in the past as well as in more recent times. IDA Ireland builds into its grants a requirement to surrender funds if targets are not delivered.