Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As regards businesses transitioning and fulfilling their obligations or our objectives under a low-carbon economy, has the cost been calculated for foreign direct investment and for indigenous industries? I am talking about businesses bearing carbon taxes - we are told we need more carbon taxes - as well as the public service obligation levies on their electricity bills and every other thing that we are going to be asking of them. What is the cost and how will that affect our competitiveness internationally?

Has it been assessed formally and how has that been done?

Under the national planning framework, does the Department have a mandate now to roll out job creation in the regions that are structurally weaker and which have not attracted jobs in the same fashion that the big urban centres have? We often hear job announcements; I know we hear only about the foreign direct investment, FDI, jobs, but they are still all in the cities and not in rural areas, that is, the counties or areas that do not have big cities. It seems that in spite of our objectives to spread development more, and to take the pressure off Dublin, Galway, Limerick and so on, the natural way the economy is developing is that these cities are becoming more and more pressurised because they are where everybody wants to invest. What policies has the Department developed since the national planning framework? On the different regional action plans for jobs to ensure there is more job creation in these areas, what specifically is the Department doing?

There are regular parliamentary questions on how many visits there have been by the IDA with a potential investor into counties such as Mayo or Roscommon, which have some FDI. There has been growth in FDI but it is in the companies that are already there and which have been there for years, which we welcome, but there is no new investment and it is often only a handful of visits a year. What is the IDA doing now that is different to realise the objectives of the national planning framework, specifically to regional areas, bearing in mind that there are issues with getting investment in those areas? One thing that comes to mind is the whole area of data centres. We are told there are issues with Apple, where an issue with planning delayed the whole project. In Mayo we have planning permission for a data centre where there is a high-speed transatlantic fibre-optic cable, and there is planning permission for a combined heat and power plant beside it. There are no takers for the data centre, however. What is being done to promote investment in these situations?

Are some parts of the country more attractive from investment and energy security points of view? Some parts of the country have better energy security and better transmission infrastructure than others. Is that an impediment? Will the witnesses identify the areas of the countries where it is not so attractive and, where, if one was looking for a great deal of power one might not invest? Where do we need to invest in infrastructure?