Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)

There are significant regional disparities in the State-aid provided through the IDA and Enterprise Ireland. For example, County Meath has 4% of Ireland's population but receives 0.3% of IDA funding. In three of the past five years, counties Cavan and Monaghan received no IDA funding. Last year, Meath received two IDA visits in total.

My issue relates to Deputy Wallace's questions. When one approaches these enterprise organisations, one is often told that they find it difficult to get businesses to come to Ireland and that getting them to locate in particular regions is next to impossible. How much is the Government spending on regional offices for the IDA and Enterprise Ireland if, by their own admission, they are irrelevant in terms of directing businesses to the regions? We are funding a regional infrastructure within the State agencies, yet they cannot intervene to direct where the businesses go.

Some businesses are operating without making provisions for contingent liabilities such as redundancy pay. Therefore, they are operating in a bankrupt fashion. Either the legislation or the policing of this matter is not working. Will the Minister consider a system whereby businesses must pay a bond, as construction companies did in the past, to ensure those liabilities are covered in the event of company failure?

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