Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Deputy. The Border region is lagging behind and I want to see more of a focus there. In fairness, creating jobs in the regions is a priority for IDA Ireland and the Department as a whole. While progress has been made, more work needs to be done and I certainly will be focused on doing everything I can to deliver the fairest possible spread of investment throughout the country. Since 2015, IDA Ireland has been working towards targets set out in its winning foreign direct investment strategy, and this includes the creation of 80,000 new jobs and 900 new investments, which will bring total foreign direct investment employment in Ireland to 209,000 by 2019. The agency is also aiming to increase the level of investment by between 30% and 40% in each region, and the results for 2017 show 45% of all jobs created by IDA Ireland clients last year were based outside Dublin. Only companies that locate outside Dublin get incentives. Those locating in Dublin do not get any. Attracting foreign direct investment to regional areas is not without its challenges and this is largely because there is a global trend to base foreign direct investment in large urban areas where there is, for example, easy access to transport hubs and networks. As we know, some people like to live in cities, and sometimes it is unavoidable that some businesses are intent on investing in larger urban areas.

I was in Limerick for the announcement in Shannon by Edwards Lifesciences of 600 jobs in the region, and it is a wonderful addition to the area. Other areas could learn from what has happened in Limerick because the company could not speak highly enough of the relationship with the university and the local institute, as well as the standard and quality of people coming out of our universities. It said the one big attraction for coming to Limerick was that talent pool. It had a cluster of people in the area with the skill set. It could not speak highly enough of what has been happening in Limerick. This has not happened overnight and a lot of work has gone into working with the local authority, the agencies and the universities. It has yielded wonderful results in the region. The area is also fortunate to have the airport in Shannon and the connectivity it brings.

IDA Ireland is also delivering property solutions to attract jobs in the regions and it has plans for advanced facilities. Earlier, I mentioned Dundalk, Galway, Limerick, Carlow, Waterford and Athlone. It hopes to have some of these completed by the fourth quarter of 2018 and the remainder in 2019. There are a number of initiatives.

Apart from IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland does huge work in terms of creating jobs in the regions and supporting indigenous industries. For those of us who do not have as much of an IDA Ireland presence, we certainly have some very strong indigenous industries and they are also very important to the local economies.