Mr. John Hughes:

The IDA's strategy is aligned with the White Paper on Enterprise which is the Government's overall strategy since December 2022. That is being revised in light of geo-political developments and the other challenges, several of which Deputy Gogarty identified, including housing. The current policy the agency is following at the behest of the Department endeavours to favour the regions. For example, there are no employment grants available in Dublin from the agencies. Equally, the agency works with the regional enterprise plan teams in each of the regions, as well as the local universities and colleges with a view to grow infrastructure to make the regions more attractive, particularly in the context of housing as it is driving up the cost of business as well as the societal issues the Deputy referenced. All of those are key considerations in the current IDA strategy and its desire to bring as many companies to the regional locations as it can. Last year, 59% of all investments were in the regions. The agency is looking to do that and is working across Government to achieve those objectives. On housing, it works with the Land Development Agency to make sure there is compatibility between the efforts of those responsible for housing policy and those of us responsible for the enterprise policy. They do talk. Ultimately the companies decide where to locate but we are trying to make it as attractive as possible to go to the regional locations where the cost base and the place-making is much more attractive than in highly expensive urban locations.