Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome the investment by Shire, Facebook and other companies in the Clonee and Dunboyne regions. It is very important and is certainly a vote of confidence in that area. What I am concerned about is that while the Minister of State mentioned the Kells Tech Hub, and I welcome the investment that has gone into that, there was no IDA financial investment in Meath in 2016. It was one of three counties which got no IDA investment, the others being Roscommon and Leitrim. Meath is vastly bigger than Leitrim and considerably bigger than Roscommon, and it has considerable advantages in terms of promoting industry. What is the Minister doing for Kells? A number of year ago Kells was designated as an area which could qualify for State aid for employment, yet there was no funding from the IDA for it last year. There is an IDA business park outside Drogheda which has had one company in it for a considerable period, but on the whole it is completely empty. That is in County Meath too. It is not acceptable. I do not think that the IDA is putting enough emphasis on other parts of the county. Clonee and Dunboyne are standing on their own two feet, as it were, because of their location and get by with support from the IDA, but with little financial investment. Other areas need that support, in particular Kells and the business park outside Drogheda. What on earth is going on with that?

See this speech in context