Mr. David Hegarty:

First, the Action Plan for Jobs 2018 at national level has a somewhat different emphasis from earlier action plans for jobs. When the Action Plan for Jobs process was initiated in 2012, we were facing a national unemployment crisis with unemployment at approximately 16% of the labour force. As you said, Chairman, the context has changed now. That is reflected in the Action Plan for Jobs 2018, which has a stronger emphasis on the regional dimension. In addition, it is important to point out that we have regional action plans for jobs with one for each of the eight NUTS 3 regions. They are currently undergoing a refresh or reprioritisation and will be published towards the end of the year. When we look at the employment performance of the economy overall, the picture is quite encouraging at regional level. We have an overall target, and it is in the programme for Government, that each region would have an unemployment rate that is not more than 1% above the State average. There are just two regions above that, the south-east region, which is your region, and the midlands. However, both are within 2% of the national average so that is an encouraging trend.

In addition, employment growth has been fairly evenly spread across the country. Four out of five jobs created in the year to the second quarter of 2017 were outside Dublin. With regard to the performance of EI and IDA-supported companies, 65% of the jobs created in EI-supported companies last year were outside Dublin. The Chairman asked if we have a focus on the problems of underperforming regions. That is a key focus of the recently launched national development plan and the accompanying national spatial strategy. They are about ensuring that growth is more evenly distributed across the different regions, with various investments in infrastructure to support that.

On the question of data centres, the Minister published a Government statement on data centres the week before last. Some concerns have been expressed. As data centres by their nature are energy intensive, they place a great deal of pressure on the grid. The policy statement basically states the IDA will aim to prioritise the location of data centre at regional locations.

The Chair referred to the competitive issues with rates, the cost of insurance and the cost of finance. When I was responding to Deputy Kelleher's questions earlier, I mentioned that those are the types of issues on which the National Competitiveness Council would focus. She is correct that the cost of finance is a significant issue in Ireland. It is higher than it is for our eurozone peers. There are issues with rates and insurance as well. Those issues are raised by the National Competitiveness Council, which is an independent body that reports to the Department. As the reports of the National Competitiveness Council are brought to the Government, that ensures there is a focus on those issues.