James Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and her departmental officials. As this is my first time to attend this meeting, for information purposes, I ask if the names of the individuals on the front row could be displayed in front of them as, sadly, with the exception of one of them, I do not know to whom I am speaking.

The Minister's comments in her opening remarks are particularly welcome. We have had a very strong performance on job creation. That that we have passed the 2 million mark in terms of the number of people at work indicates that the drop in unemployment figures is real. Many existing companies in the foreign direct investment, FDI, sector are being supported by the Minister to take on more employees and that is a rational reason for her to continue to support them.

I welcome that there are plans in progress to deal with the fallout of Brexit, which I totally expect. We have seen some effects already and there will be more to come that we will not know about until the negotiations start.

I would like to return to Deputy Neville's focus on IDA Ireland. I might raise the issue slightly differently and we would probably both come to the same point. Why would a particular property be purchased and what factors would influence that? Does IDA Ireland have a policy around hubs? How are those hubs chosen? How is a particular industry chosen for a particular region or area? For instance, we have the pharma industry in Cork and there is another hub in Blanchardstown. That is only one industry and there are many other industries but how are they matched to the various regions?