John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The IDA brings in the potential investor. It is about location but there is a big emphasis on the north west and Border regions. I agree there is a difficulty getting people out of the main centres and the job of the Government is to encourage the IDA to support that. Obviously, however, business is driven by its customer and that determines its preferred location.

The IDA has had a successful year to date, with many announcements, and we should recognise client companies created more than 13,000 jobs in 2011, up 20% on the previous figure of 10,897 in 2010. There was an overall increase of 70% in the number of investments by IDA client companies in 2011. Despite the current global economic situation and a strong increase in international competition, there were 148 new investments won during the year across all industrial sectors.

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