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

I accept with IDA Ireland jobs that more are peaking around the cities. All the cities are doing well and it is harder in some of the regions. That is why we are investing €150 million in property solutions in those other regions to build advanced facilities and strengthen them. The LEOs will have a very important role to play but there will be a specific competitive call targeted at them as to how they can be more innovative in the region and draw down additional resources for new ideas. They are very much included in these competitive calls.

The €100 million fund will be used to develop the assets we have in the regions, whether it is enterprise centres, LEOs, or, hopefully, uniform clusters to grow opportunities in food production or medical devices, for example. There will be money available but it will be competitive. We are not saying there is a little for everyone. We want to see competitive calls and really good projects being brought forward with the best ones getting funding. At the enterprise committee, the Deputy has asked me to show him the results with the KPIs, key performance indicators and so forth. That is the approach we are taking. This is what Deputies have said to me in the committee and I am implementing the approach that they are asking of me.

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