Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I hear the Deputy very clearly but it is not all about site visits. Many of the foreign direct investment, FDI, companies already here decide themselves, with the help and support of the IDA, to increase the workforce and there will not be a site visit. I made the point very strongly that the FDI companies decide where they want to go. I was on a trade mission recently in the west coast of the United States and it was very obvious when I visited companies with the IDA that the IDA’s intention is to win trade, to land the company in Ireland. When it gets buy-in from the company it will talk to the company which will be informed of the supports available. There are many more supports available in the regions and in rural Ireland than in Dublin but the company ultimately decides.

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