Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

IDA Ireland representatives meet clients and then introduce them to different sites. Obviously, it is difficult to encourage them to go to different sites if they have no wish to. That is the first thing to understand.

The second thing is I am always getting questions on how many site visits were carried out in this county, that county or the other. Sometimes when we look at the numbers it appears rather skewed because the same company may go to the same site on several occasions. There is another point I am keen for everyone to understand. As the majority of the increases in jobs that IDA Ireland brings are with existing companies, there is no need for site visits at all. Another point I am keen to make is that not every company announces jobs. The changes may not be showing up in our statistics. Site visits to all the regions have increased. There have been 154 visits outside Dublin. Another question related to how we pick the sites. Is that correct? Was it the number of sites or site visits?