Dr. Brian Hughes:

Every location has its potential. That was recognised in the definition of balanced regional development. The problem is priority and resources. Clearly, the resources in this recovering country are affected by a still very high national debt and very low interest rates that are going to rise, resulting in a huge amount of future taxation resources having to go towards paying off the national debt and the interest to service that debt. Obviously, we should be investing to give the best returns in the longer term. To my mind, it is not a question of Dublin versus the rest of the country or Dublin plus the other cities versus the towns and rural areas. It is about complementarity. We are all on the Irish team. We are all batting for each other. The point is that we must select winners in preference to laggards, initially anyway, in order that the benefits from the winners can then be available to distribute from the core to the periphery.