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

I do not accept that there has been too much focus on FDI. We had to have an export-led recovery. The domestic economy has been on the floor for the past four years and this has not been easy to correct because of the State finances and finances of individuals and so on.

Our focus on Irish companies exporting abroad and attracting new investment continues to be absolutely vital. I agree with the Deputy that by putting the local enterprises offices into the local authorities, which has been criticised, it does give us an opportunity to engage differently with local communities. We hope that over time it will be exactly like that - seeing more bottom-up initiatives from local authorities engaging with stakeholders in their areas.

It is not true that the IDA gets more generous support. As we have been discussing, a lot of those go to Dublin and Cork where there is zero per cent regional aid available. It is a myth that the IDA receives a whole lot of supports. The truth is that we have supports for indigenous companies across the whole range, including start-up, innovation, technology support, management development, graduate placements and export supports. We have a big range of supports for export-oriented Irish companies, which is much wider than we offer elsewhere.

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