Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)

I agree that the IDA gets good value for money. It came before the joint committee recently and it is clear it is doing a very good job for the money its gets. There is no problem in that area. When one includes the other agencies, Enterprise Ireland and Shannon Development, it averages out at approximately 2,500 net jobs per year. We mentioned targets earlier. I appreciate the Minister cannot predict exact numbers, but going forward would the Minister be happy with a net return of 2,500 to 3,000 jobs per year? Should we aim higher or is there anything that can be done by the Department to improve that even further? Some counties, I can name them if the Minister wishes but there are seven or eight on my list, are down a good deal of jobs over the years; they have experienced a net loss rather than net gain. In general, are there any plans to increase the overall figure from 2,500 to 3,000 per year?

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