Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In addition to regional disparities, there is a sense that the economic recovery is two-tiered, not only in terms of the wealthy getting everything and those on the lowest incomes being hardest hit but also, as the ESRI and other bodies have indicated, in terms of the regional spread of economic development. One needs only to drive through rural towns in the Carlow-Kilkenny constituency and other rural areas to see the extraordinary lack of development.

In 2014, the IDA organised only six sponsored visits to counties Carlow and Kilkenny combined. The figure in 2013 was four. That is a dismal record.

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