Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is down to the big shots in some other country to decide where a company goes. The purpose of the IDA and Enterprise Ireland is to support balanced regional development but the Minister of State has let the cat out of the bag. The purpose of the incentives is to encourage companies to set up in counties where they might not otherwise go. I do not expect them to set up in areas where there is not sufficient infrastructure.

At Europe, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation secured the status quo. The large companies will still get the large grants and half the population of Ireland - the big cities - will be prioritised again. If he had allowed 25% of the population to be incentivised geographically as opposed to the 75% who are currently better off, there was a chance that areas like the BMW region would have received a reasonable level of investment. The current arrangement has delivered 80% of investment for the well-off counties and 20% for the remainder. The Minister is propagating that situation.

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