Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Ireland remains a very attractive location for FDI. The Deputy spoke about competing. It is interesting to note that just last week Enterprise Ireland and the IDA got together to bring indigenous companies together with FDI companies in three locations - Dublin, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan's constituency of Limerick, and Sligo - where they competed with one another to subsupply into those FDI companies that are already in Ireland. It was a great success. There was great interaction between the indigenous Irish companies and the FDI companies we already have in this country. That is an example of collaboration and of how the two agencies work. That collaboration is extremely important for them. SMEs and micro-enterprises make up 98% of all enterprises in this country and employ almost 70% of the workers. The SME sector is extremely important, being the indigenous sector that Enterprise Ireland takes care of. FDI is extremely important but many small companies are set up from FDI and which subsupply such companies. That collaboration is extremely important, and we work really well in that regard, as well as in terms of the local enterprise offices.

See this speech in context