Mr. Martin Shanahan:

I acknowledge the points the Deputy made on the difficulty for those commuting and for those who do not have employment. There is a desire to have employment in all counties and areas. I fully recognise that. I come from rural Kerry and I absolutely understand it. From an IDA perspective, we have set out very clear targets for regional development. After I joined the IDA in 2015, we published our new strategy and for the first time we set regional targets to increase regional investment by 30% to 40% in each region over a five-year period. That is what we are working towards. It is extraordinarily challenging; there is no question about it. I will come back to the why of that in a moment. That is what we are trying to achieve. We are making steady year-on-year progress. The Deputy mentioned a series of towns in the midlands. He left out Athlone-----