Dr. Orlaigh Quinn:

From the regional development strategy and national planning framework, which makes it clear, the purpose is to develop clusters and centres. I do not think we will ever see an Ireland with a concentration of jobs in every village, but we need to ensure we have sufficient presence across the region, which I think people in Dublin would say about commuting as well. It is about trying to make it clustered and attractive for companies and people to locate, and it has been extremely positive. Both the agencies have been extremely successful in growing jobs, as have the local enterprise offices across all the regions of Ireland.

From our perspective, regional employment is one of our main priorities, as I mentioned earlier. Yesterday we met with the heads of the eight regional action plans for jobs, all of whom are private-sector people, in each of the regions with committees, highlighting the particular attractiveness and opportunities in each region because each region is different, and discussing how we can support them. We have a team of people in the Department working collectively with each of those regional action teams, which is how we drive employment forward.

I invite Mr. Donoghue to answer the Senator's question on the IDA visits.