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

I thank the Deputy for his support for this initiative. It is not true to say, as he projected in his initial statement, that foreign direct investment only takes place east of the Shannon. In the western counties to which Deputy Calleary referred in terms of the report from the WDC, 4,000 additional jobs were created by the IDA in the past four years. There has been a stronger performance by those companies than by Enterprise Ireland companies in those regions.

It is not true to say that the IDA is undervaluing the regions. We are seeking to support balanced regional growth through the IDA. It has made a commitment to increase its project by 40% in each region. It is a very firm commitment and to underpin it, as the Deputy knows, we are building advance facilities in Athlone. LEOs are a fundamental piece of the strategy. We recently allocated additional staff, through a graduate placement programme, to virtually all LEOs. We are having a competitive call specifically aimed at LEOs to allow them to bring forward new initiatives that would support job creation. It is a competitive approach and we stand over it.

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