Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The figures speak for themselves in terms of County Westmeath as a whole. Last year, companies supported by the IDA created 222 jobs and companies created by Enterprise Ireland created 171 jobs. That is almost 400 jobs in the exporting sector alone. Let us not forget that part of our strategy has been to build tourism and agriculture. Agriculture took on an additional 25,000 people this year in farming and food. These are sectors where the midlands has a competitive advantage and we will be trying to build on the strengths of companies in the space.

I do not believe in having task forces speckled all around the country but we need better integration of our enterprise effort in regions. We have an IDA office, Enterprise Ireland and we will now have the local enterprise offices, LEOs, all of which will be developing enterprise plans. There is potential to consider the integration of those plans and build relationships with the wider community to ensure we are exploiting the assets of regions such as the midlands and towns like Mullingar. The criticism of the IDA is unfair. Companies decide on their locations, not the IDA or the Minister. We are in a competitive environment where we are competing hard to win projects not against competition from Dublin, Galway or Athlone but we are fighting to win projects for Ireland.

When we win a company, it comes and decides which area best fits its needs. It is not led by any politician or official in the IDA. We must ensure we present our towns and regions in the best possible light and integrate our resources to make strong offers to companies which are considering investment. That is my ambition and I am keen to develop better regional enterprise strategies that can get buy-in from the assets and agencies in the region. We need to work on that over the coming years. I thank Deputy Bannon for raising this. Clearly, his impatience for more development is rightly placed and reflects my own impatience to build more job opportunities, not just in Westmeath and the midlands but nationally.

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