Mr. Ian Brannigan:

I will take the questions in order. The Senator mentioned our investment fund. I thank him for his kind words regarding the south east. I will give the committee an overview of the fund. The document we supplied to the committee refers to 134 enterprises supported, but the updated figure is 140. It is growing all the time. I will provide an example of where the money has gone over the years.

I stress that the western investment fund was a really good initiative of the Government of the day and has done and is doing an excellent job. However, as we have had no fund since 2010, it is working on revolving funds, that is, funds that may have come back. The position is that the largest share on a sectoral basis of the spread of investments, the €48 million about which Senator Paudie Coffey spoke, is in the life sciences because of the cluster of world-class medical devices organisations in the west. After that comes the ICT sector, with a share of €10.1 million, followed by the clean tech sector, at €3 million; the food sector, at €2 million; the natural resources sector, at €1.4 million; the manufacturing sector, at €3 million; and the tourism sector, at €1.2 million. There is good diversity in the sectors funded, although, in fairness, in the life sciences risk and return are also considerations.

The way in which the fund has been dispersed geographically during the years is interesting. We mentioned the anchor that is Galway city. Owing to their population, city and county areas will obviously receive a proportionate sum. I will give the committee the figures and then discuss them a little. During the years Galway city has received €16 million. That is a large percentage of the outlay, but County Donegal has received €5.3 million; County Mayo, €9.2 million; County Sligo, approximately €2.6 million; and County Clare, €1.5 million. Therefore, there has been a regional spread of the money. That is one of the main aims in what we are trying to do. As the Chairman said and I intimated, we see fully the anchoring nature of what is a large area. The goal is to use the likes of Sligo, Castlebar, Shannon, Ennis and Letterkenny as mini magnets or mini anchors and try to spread from there. Many of our efforts in promoting regional development and providing access to finance are aimed at trying to get businesses and organisations to come to us to see whether they can grow. We have had some recent good successes in that regard.

As I mentioned to Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice, we worked on the national planning framework, the precursor to Project Ireland 2040, on a collaborative basis with many of the local authorities. I felt it was very much a concerted effort to seek what was best for the region, which was both good and new; hence, I think poles around Sligo, Athlone and Letterkenny emerged from the plan on the basis that there was an understanding that if we could have infrastructure and so on provided in these areas, it would benefit wider areas. I thought they were very sensible proposals and we were very glad to be a part of the process.

Senator Paudie Coffey made a really interesting point about Ballina and Waterford and the line between them and asked a very good question. The WDC is interested in all access infrastructure to grow the economy. About two years ago we made a rail freight analysis - it is on our website - that looked at rail freight as perhaps being a way to enter passenger numbers and so on to subsidise them. The analysis showed that three of the four freight lines in the country, of which Ballina-Waterford is one, emanated from or passed through the west. I know that there is work ongoing in the Department in that regard. I would have to go back to the team to talk about the Senator's request for a feasibility study to link with it. If I may, I will defer the response to that discussion and come back to the Senator on the matter.