John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The IDA Horizon 2020 project was published in March 2010. It aims to have 50% of new jobs based in locations outside Dublin and Cork. Will the Minister admit that this plan has since been quietly shelved? Research at NUI Maynooth has found that many of the 82% of jobs created here by overseas firms in recent years have been centred around Dublin, Cork and Galway. Surely the obvious way to achieve the targets of Horizon 2020 would be to improve the regional aid for foreign companies investing in areas of high unemployment.

We invest vast sums of money in IDA Ireland, whose job description is to attract and create companies in the south east and to direct them there. I am referring specifically to the IDA in the south east. Many people in Waterford consider that the agency is not doing its job and I agree on the basis of the statistics I have given to the Minister, which are reasoned statistics that have come to light from Government sources in recent weeks. They indicate that jobs are not being created in Waterford and that the IDA Horizon 2020 project is a failure when it comes to the south east.

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