Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate any jobs that come into the country in these straitened times but a business typically wants a skilled workforce, an infrastructure and an ability to make a profit. In most parts of the country that exists. What we need in the areas that do not have those is Government attention focused on providing those into the future. Government direction is also needed. Up until now certain Governments gave direction to the IDA to provide jobs in certain areas. The Government's Action Plan for Jobs contained a direction for a 50% target for foreign direct investment outside those areas. Has the Minister given up on that? He is saying it is impossible to give direction, that foreign direct investment will go where it will go, but on another level he is saying he is going to give direction. Which is it?

Irish financial services went to locate in the docks area because the Government directed them down there, and the clustering that has happened in the medi-tech sector in the west and in the pharmaceuticals sector in the south took place because those clusters were initiated by Government policy. We need an even distribution of these jobs.

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