John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Given the presence of local enterprise officers and local county boards, there will be a regional structure. The Minister, Deputy Bruton, is formulating a regional structure. We should remember that aid intensity rates will be maintained at the current levels. It is important to put this on the record.

The current regional aid guidelines and the upcoming 2014 outline suggest that aid intensity in Ireland must not exceed 30% for small enterprises, 20% for medium-sized enterprises and 10% after that. These rates are the same as currently available in Ireland, apart from the BMW region, for which an additional 5% is currently available. However, this was a transition period in which the BMW region moved ahead of the A status which refers to being among the most deprived areas.

One of the key issues for Ireland in securing this deal was that whereas the backdrop was that investment aid to large enterprises had to be prohibited, population coverage had to be reduced from 50% to 25% and aid intensity rates had to be reduced dramatically, the Minister secured outcomes whereby large enterprises would be allowed new activities, population coverage would be maintained and aid intensity would be maintained. We are altogether committed. Let us consider the larger companies.

The level of foreign direct investment, FDI, by larger companies has been high. It is the choice of the company entering Ireland. The IDA cannot direct companies to go to Sligo, Kilkenny or anywhere else.

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