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

Enterprise Ireland is interviewing people. I also wish to ensure that the committee understands something else.

It was first announced through this committee that we had given IDA Ireland an extra €500,000 to ensure that it was able to advertise and to do a good PR campaign.

The Deputy also asked about the regional black spots. When IDA Ireland launched its 2017-2018 plan, it targeted an increase of between 30% and 40% in job creation in the regions. While all the regions are growing from a job creation perspective, some of them are performing better than others. I assure the Deputy that this issue is nearly always on the top of the agenda when I meet officials from IDA Ireland, including its chief executive, Mr. Martin Shanahan. My job, as Minister, is to ensure that IDA Ireland has the extra resources to do what it needs to do. The Deputy will be aware that we are building nine extra factories. Some of them will be on stream this year. IDA Ireland is investing €150 million in property solutions under the regional action plan. The programme for Government includes a commitment that IDA Ireland would be able to avail of an extra €200 million over the next five years to ensure it can address regional development needs.