Mr. Mark Christal:

In response to Deputy Ó Cuív's questions and comments, I would make a couple of points. First, as he rightly identified, the responsibility for the property portfolio lies with IDA Ireland. It is mandated to manage it and it is best placed to talk about the full range of properties that are available to support foreign direct investment. However, I stress and reassure the Deputy there is ongoing collaboration between ourselves and IDA Ireland at national level and regional level on this and a number of other initiatives.

In terms of the development of co-working spaces we have supported, as I mentioned and as stated in our submission, €64 million has been invested by ourselves in the community enterprise centres. In addition, with respect to regional accelerators, for example, the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, recently launched the enterprise development plan from the PorterShed in Galway, which is a good example of collaboration between ourselves and the IDA Ireland in those sorts of hubs and facilities and also the business innovation centres. We have the remit for the development of high potential start-up companies and we collaborate with IDA Ireland on how we can develop those and to use the facilities that are in place. Another area on which we collaborate with IDA Ireland and on which we are focused is our agenda around second sites, which relate to Enterprise Ireland companies that are establishing and expanding their presence in regional locations as opposed to city or urban locations.

As the Deputy will be aware, we have responsibility for the food direct investment, FDI, agenda. While IDA Ireland has the agenda for the wider sectors, we have responsibility for food FDI and we collaborate very much with IDA Ireland on available properties and the appropriate properties to support that sector.