Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Some of the schemes offer zero hour contracts, JobBridge positions or part-time work and they are unsustainable. Many people finish their training schemes further along the long-term unemployed list. The jobs are low-paid and insufficient. The IDA has fallen well short of its targets for attracting foreign investment, particularly in the regions outside Dublin and Cork cities. The IDA is putting all its resources and energy into getting larger companies to settle in these two areas and there is no focus on attracting smaller companies that would be better suited to the rural peripheral counties. My county, which the Taoiseach regularly visits and knows very well, received only three visits from the IDA in 2014. It is ridiculous. Several major employers in the county have been closed in recent years and nothing has been done to replace them. The county is an industrial wasteland, and we can see it in our towns, villages and communities where there has been major emigration, and allowing this to happen gives us no hope. I ask the Taoiseach and the Minister personally to take it up with the IDA and ensure we get a better deal than we have had in the past ten years in particular.

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