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

The situation in the south east has been problematic for a number of years. There has been high unemployment in the region, its manufacturing base has suffered a very high level of attrition and it has suffered in particular from the collapse in construction. Talk Talk collapsed a few months into my term as Minister with the loss of 650 jobs. That led us to put together the south east employment action plan. Since then, this committee has carried on much good work on developing its own proposals for SEEDS. It runs a good deal wider than my remit. I will respond as best I can and try to deal with questions as they come. We have put a spotlight on the south east in both our Enterprise Ireland brief and our IDA brief. We have more than doubled the number of site visits to the region from an IDA perspective. We have established an advanced 2,500-square-metre medical technologies facility which is now close to completion.
We have had a number of successes. One of these, Eishtec, which was run by three former executives from Talk Talk, has gone from virtually a standing start to employing 950 people, which is a far greater number than was ever employed by Talk Talk between Waterford and Wexford. We have expansions in Dawn Meats and the Glanbia project, which is building on the really optimistic prospects for the dairy sector. Another story is that of Nypro - again, in the medical devices arena - and there was the case of West Pharma last week. West Pharma is a very sophisticated medical devices company that focuses in particular on diabetes treatment. Last week we also had the stories of Danone Baby Nutrition and Ribworld, which are really exciting. We are creating what one might call an Irish mittelstandwith companies such as Ribworld, a global brand with the ambition to be a global company producing innovative pork products. It is a really exciting business and a fantastic story. This country needs to set its flag to deliver companies like these. Thankfully, more and more of these companies are emerging.
We continue to focus on this. I might take questions as they come. A number of issues in the committee's report went well beyond my brief. There is, obviously, a continuing interest in the shared application by Waterford and Carlow for a technological university. There are other programmes to do with the airport and broadband, which the committee has set out. In the next month, my Department will produce a regional enterprise framework. Every region is benefiting from the recovery but not all are benefiting to the same degree.

We must look under the bonnet to get an understanding of where the competitive advantage lies and work to make decisions that build that out. That work is in progress. We have made other important decisions. The local enterprise offices, which are a new alliance between Enterprise Ireland, the local authorities and what were the county enterprise boards, are now open. I have great optimism for them. At a time of renewed interest in start-up business, they are a first-stop shop. There are 31 offices across the country and they will be players.

An issue raised in the report of the joint committee was that of the south east, which is now on a level playing field with the BMW region in terms of regional aid. That was one of the issues of concern. As I have already mentioned, we have made an investment in Waterford in an advanced facility. Our ambition, when we create the regional framework within which we will approach it, is to roll that out within each region, starting with the midlands and the south-east as the areas that we need to get to grips with first. We will move on progressively from those. We will be sitting down with stakeholders to determine where the competitive strengths lie and what initiatives we can take collectively to deliver change. We will work towards an annual action plan at regional level involving different players to deliver change to enhance employment performance. This is a work in progress in terms of the south east. I am happy to take suggestions or queries.