Mr. Michael McLoughlin:

To respond to Senator Quinn said, the biggest issue for us is finding companies we can engage with. The more companies we can identify, the greater our success will be with this programme. We find people are very pleasantly surprised by what Ireland has to offer. They are not always aware of some of the advantages and benefits. Once we are engaged and have the opportunity to talk about the availability of our young, educated workforce and can show them the demographics in terms of the percentage of the population under a certain age - their future workforce - the availability of facilities, the infrastructure etc., we find we get a very positive response.

Our biggest challenge now is to get the word out to more people and companies so that we have an opportunity to pitch to those companies. We are quite confident that once we engage with them, we will succeed. Our success rate is very good. In one of the brochures Mr. Clune has passed around, Ted Berry is quoted on the announcement made for the operation in Portarlington. His first comment related to the welcome he received in Ireland and to how he was led to understand that people wanted the jobs here. This was very important. He was well down the road towards investing in the Czech Republic and had identified a site there and was engaged there, but from the outset he was made feel that we wanted his company and jobs in Ireland. His opening comment on the day of the announcement was about the warm feeling he got, not just from ConnectIreland or the IDA, but from dealing with people locally in regard to the availability of land, from working with recruiters, accountants and legal people. They all wanted to sell Ireland because they felt they had something to play for in getting these people to come to Ireland. Their engagement was key and remains a crucial role. It is something at which Ireland Inc is very good.

Our biggest challenge is to identify more companies. We would love to be back here next year saying that as a result of this meeting, we have identified 100 or 200 more companies due to the committee helping us spread the word.