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

I welcome the Deputy's support for the process. One of the things we have lacked over the years is a genuine attempt to have bottom-up regional development which embraces the stakeholders in the region and gets them involved in a set of objectives for the region and actions that can transform it. As the Deputy knows, since the start of the Action Plan for Jobs we have seen a net increase of 135,800 people at work. That is well in excess of the target we set. Every region is experiencing jobs growth and, interestingly, the midlands region has been one of the star performers in terms of the pace of growth, although it probably suffered particularly badly in the crash.

The action plans for the midlands and the west launched over the last few months contain, as the Deputy says, a series of practical actions developed in collaboration with the regional stakeholders to support enterprise growth. I would point out, as I did to Deputy Calleary, that 90% of the extra jobs in the regions have come from Irish-owned companies. Any reasonable debate about regional development has to focus on developing the ingenuity and capacity of those firms to grow. Nonetheless, IDA projects are important. As I said to Deputy Calleary, we have set a target of increasing them. We will have an advanced facility in Athlone, as Deputy Naughten knows.

To give examples of some of the actions, there is a skills forum to look at the skills mix; there will be an initiative to develop a marketing proposition around high-value manufacturing, which is a cluster spread well throughout the region; we are looking at a midlands manufacturing technology campus, which I think has a good spread; we are examining the capacity for development of the various tourism spines; and we are looking at the medical devices sector, which is thankfully located not just around the city. The plan is looking at a range of actions, and it also involves a competitive call that allows others to come forward with initiatives that have not been outlined at this point.

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