Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In terms of a broader approach, Mayo County Council's economic investment unit is the way to go. If the Taoiseach allows the Minister and Minister of State in, they should visit to see that work. Alternatively, we could arrange for the unit to visit them. The Minister of State would be well aware of it.

The Minister mentioned Allergan. A few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to meet its international board, which visited Westport for its annual meeting and spoke about the Allergan product. Would the IDA locate Allergan in Westport today? Based on these figures, it would not, yet the Allergan experience of Westport has been amazing, as has its workforce. I want the workforces of Longford and elsewhere in my county to get the chance to recreate companies in the same way that the Allergan workforce has done in Westport since the mid-1970s. Based on this visit profile, that will not happen.

I accept that we are competing against large regions, but even Wicklow, Kildare and Meath in Dublin's commuter belt are not getting an appropriate number of visits. They can be sold as city regions with connectivity to colleges and industry and all of the criteria about which the Minister spoke, yet we seem determined to focus our efforts on this city. If we keep doing so, we will start walking down paths that we took in the 1990s and the early part of this century that we do not want to walk again.

See this speech in context