Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the House will acknowledge, it is very much Government policy to ensure our nation's prosperity is shared, that everyone benefits and that all parts of the country benefit. Project Ireland 2040 is very much about making sure we have economic development in all parts of the country, that the large cities outside Dublin grow twice as fast as Dublin, that we develop new major urban centres, such as the Dundalk to Drogheda corridor, Athlone and Sligo, and that we make sure we have a growth in population in rural Ireland. We want more than 200,000 people living in rural Ireland by 2040. Before the end of the year we will be able to make the first allocations under the urban renewal fund and the rural renewal fund. Deputy McGrath knows that €2 billion was set aside for the urban fund and €1 billion for the rural fund. I am sure very good projects have come in from Tipperary for those funds but I am not in a position to allocate the funding today.

I appreciate that many towns in Tipperary are not doing well. I saw the media coverage of the protest that occurred in Tipperary Town. I have been there in the past. At the same time, we should not make the mistake of failing to acknowledge that Tipperary is a good county. It is a good place to live and has a lot of successful industries. It is an area we should speak about in such a way that attracts people to move there and attracts investment towards it.

The Deputy will have seen unemployment fall significantly. In north Tipperary, it peaked at more than 8,000 in 2012 and it is now down to 4,400. In south Tipperary, unemployment almost reached 10,000 and is now down to 4,700. A lot of work is being done by the enterprise agencies. There are now almost 6, 000 jobs in companies supported by Enterprise Ireland in Tipperary. There are 3,600 people working for 11 IDA Ireland client companies. In recent months, job announcements were made by DMS Governance in Cashel and significant investment in the Lisheen Mines bio-economy project.

The Deputy also mentioned roads. The allocation for regional and local roads in Tipperary increased to €21.7 million this year from €18.4 million last year. That is a big increase in roads funding for the county. This is separate from any funding provided through the local improvement scheme.

On the issue of an SDZ for the area, we are always open to consideration of this but such a zone is not necessarily the magic bullet people think it is. I have an SDZ in my constituency and we often colloquially refer to it as the slow development zone. There are other SDZs, for example in Knock, that may have benefits in the future but just designating something an SDZ does not mean development follows. It requires a little more thought than that.

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