Mr. Martin Shanahan:

I thank Deputy Niall Collins. There is a differential in that Dublin is still extremely attractive, but there are capacity constraints due to our rapidly growing economy. Clearly, that is something we use to market other parts of the country. I remind Deputies that companies also have alternatives elsewhere. It is not just about making a decision to locate in Dublin, Athlone, Mullingar or Limerick but in Dublin, Frankfurt or Paris or remain in the United States. It is the nature of these deicisons that companies consider international locations and they have other options. They look at the availability of talent, which means that they look at population size. They also look at the supply of talent within a particular region, which speaks to the availability of third level institutes - an institute of technology or a university - as well as the attractiveness of the location in terms of whether it is an attractive place in which to live and work, as well as the availability of other amenities on the doorstep. At one level there is no great science involved as to why certain areas do very well and others less well. It is an issue of population distribution. It is also more difficult when there are multiple population centres in a region, rather than having everybody concentrated in one part of it, as is the position in Dublin and the east.

What are we trying to do to address the issue? The first priority is to continue to attract investments to Ireland, to target the investments that might be more amenable to being made in regional areas. I have mentioned that manufacturing is one of the activities that is most likely to be engaged in outside Dublin. We have rolled out a property programme to provide buildings in advance in order to attract investments to areas. We work with local authorities on a regional basis to try to improve the attractiveness of a region in order that we can give companies confidence that they will be able to attract employees and that it is an attractive place in which to live and work. It is true also to say, in regard to the differential between Dublin and the rest of the country, that while there is a cost differential in the availability of housing, other regions outside Dublin are also challenged.

Deputy Niall Collins has highlighted the areas that are doing well. They include Athlone, Galway, Limerick and Cork, but their success is to the benefit of the entire region because the more companies we can get to locate in a region the more it helps to build a cluster. Let me give an example. The more investments are attacted to Limerick the more likely it is that Shannon will attract investment in the future. We have worked with local authorities on the offering. We have new marketing material for the regions which we have rolled out internationally. It is continuing the grind and the hard work that will get us results, while at the same time ensuring the overall competitiveness of the country is maintained. Without that competitiveness, we will not be discussing the regions but Ireland versus the rest.