Mr. Barry O'Leary:

First, the decision on a location around the world is a very complex one.

In general, companies with an investment in play look around the world and set out the top ten to 20 areas. They might put a weighting of 20% on one aspect or 2% on another and this is how it is done. We never get a free run at any investment and there is always plenty of competition. The only question is who the competition will be and how many different countries will be involved. We try to present what Ireland offers and its value proposition, which is complex. Looking back, 20 years ago we would have been sitting here speaking about companies such as Fruit of the Loom having 4,000 people in Donegal and Farah slacks. The success of Ireland has been constantly changing. We did not have an Internet company of scale before 2004 and we have the top ten in the world now. We had two bio-pharmaceutical companies in the early 2000s and today we have 11. Much is done to enhance the offering, such as getting strategic sites. With regard to the Glanbia investment in Waterford, the IDA acquired the Belview land a long time ago and spent a fortune on putting in water infrastructure. This water would be there for a major project, whether it was going to be Glanbia or something else.