Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent)
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I thank the Tánaiste and the departmental officials for attending today. In his opening statement, the Tánaiste described the south east as being one of the best performing regions over the past two years. I am just wondering what qualitative and quantitative research the Department used to form that description. I might provide the Tánaiste with some of my own. The south east has 8.9% of the country's population and 5.4% of IDA Ireland jobs. I believe this shows that the IDA strategy has failed the south east to date, notwithstanding that I have engaged and am engaging with some of the companies that are presently announcing down there. In terms of share of GDP, we have 6.7% of national GDP. We are missing nearly €10 billion of GDP. At present, we are at €28.5 billion, and I estimate that we should be at €37.8 billion by that metric. We have 209,000 people in the labour market, which is a record high, but we still have lower participation and higher unemployment rates. It shows a shortfall of 11,000 individuals in the work area. In terms of taxation, individuals in the south east pay 51.2% of the national average of all income taxes. We have progressive tax, but this demonstrates the low job quality we have in the region. In terms of PAYE jobs, the south east provides 48.5% of the national average of PAYE and the USC tax take. On those metrics, I do not think we could be described as one of the best performing regions in the country. I would say that in fact, we are still a laggard. I have asked the Tánaiste in the House and have engaged with the Department on it, but will the Government now consider establishing a western development-type commission for the south-east region? It has been done very successfully in the west. As the Tánaiste is aware, it is underpinned by statute and receives funding of around €2.5 million per annum from which it can lever additional moneys. It does applied research and comes up with strategic analysis that it is able to lobby the Government very effectively for. That is something that is missing in the south east. Perhaps the Tánaiste can address that.