Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Will the Minister comment further on the balanced regional development to which she referred in her opening statement? The 18 counties that cover 70% of the area of the State accounted for less than 2% of the 187,000 persons employed by IDA Ireland-supported companies in 2015. That reinforces what many of us say about the imbalance of regional development and the spread of jobs. Those counties include Monaghan, Leitrim, Laois, Longford, Roscommon and Carlow. On page 26 of the Department’s document, as furnished to us, there is a table of the 2016 job announcements in IDA Ireland-supported client companies. I do not think the figures for the spread would change much from those I have quoted in 2015. The Enterprise Ireland job announcements on page 28 would not rectify that imbalance. How will we tackle that?

Does the Minister have any statistics on the issuing of work permits? I was approached by the Irish road haulage industry which is feeling pressure in trying to employ people on work permits because not enough Irish drivers are offering. They are trying to cope with the increased demand for its services as the economy improves.