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

I have an agreement that the funding will be made available should the need arise.

With regard to the retail stores, I take the Chairman's point that there are many UK retail stores in this country. I liaise with them through the retail forum and I meet them on a regular basis. I have met the retailers and the food importers four times, in particular the big supermarkets, because they obviously have particular challenges in terms of Brexit. Those four meetings have proved very useful because the companies have been able to bring to my attention issues of concern to them. I have had the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine come in to talk about the sanitary and phytosanitary, SPS, checks that will become necessary due to Brexit and I have had Revenue in with me as well. We have had round-table meetings with Revenue, with Dublin Port and with the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. We have met them, along with the haulage sector and the logistics companies. They have all been in and I have met them four times. They have been very good meetings and the companies have had an opportunity to raise issues with me in terms of what we need to do to make sure those supply chains remain open and there is not a bottleneck due to a crash-out Brexit. The retail stores are represented on the retail forum. If there are particular issues regarding the retail stores, I am happy to hear them. We will work with them in whatever way we can to make sure there is not huge disruption to their business. I accept it is a difficult time for them.

It was a very good event in Waterford on Friday and I thank the Chairman for attending. A good deal is happening in Waterford. When I was there, I opened the new 3D manufacturing facility that is funded by my Department's regional enterprise development fund. I launched the new project led by the STEAM research facility, which received €2 million in funding under the disruptive technologies fund. I visited Nutrition Research Centre Ireland, which is supported by the Government through Science Foundation Ireland, and is doing groundbreaking research work in that nutrition space.

There is a lot going on in Waterford. I believe the launch of the regional enterprise plan will help to consolidate and build on the strengths that are there. While I accept the figure for Waterford is higher than we would like, we will work hard to ensure it is reduced. There are some areas which are just not as good as others. However, there has been a lot of work on the ground. I compliment the local committee. This is why it was so important that I went around the country to attend the nine events, eight of which were outside Dublin, to recognise the work that is being done at a local level. Whether it is done through the local enterprise office, the IDA, Enterprise Ireland, the education sector or the providers, they are all crucial in this regard. It is about training the right people for the right jobs and, as the Chairman knows, about showing we have a pool of talented people and about clustering skills. I am confident this plan will refocus on the strengths in that whole region. I have no doubt it will bring benefits.

In the south east there are 76 IDA-supported companies employing 15,580 people, which is up 7% on 2017.

Recent IDA Ireland announcements include DMS Corporate Services' announcement of 50 jobs in Tipperary, INDOS Financial's announcement of 15 jobs in Wexford, Bausch + Lomb's announcement of 100 jobs in Waterford, and MSD's announcement of 170 jobs in Carlow. That gives an idea of the figures. We will certainly work with the committee to improve on them.