Dr. Brian Hughes:

Regarding town size and growth, in an earlier life, I worked in the provincial bank in Birr so I got to know the town. The Senator's question is why Edenderry and not Birr. If one commutes daily, every ten minutes extra one must spend commuting is ten minutes less one has to be able to assimilate each day into the local community. I call this the Rochfordbridge scenario. Regarding distance decay, apart altogether from the cost of commuting, it is a matter of the time and the energy spent commuting. I understand that Intel, for example, says it is not terribly happy taking people on in Leixlip if they must spend more than 45 minutes commuting in each direction because the realisation is that this very much affects the amount they can then put into their job that is already gone in commuting.

The Senator talked about-----