Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge that the Deputy was at the launch of the north-east regional enterprise plan in Cootehill. I take his point about the regions. I want to encourage collaboration between the regions and the IDA, which as the Deputy will be aware, operates on a national basis. I accept that we need to address the issue of people from the north east having to travel to Dublin for jobs.

That is recognised in one of the objectives of the north-east regional enterprise plan, which states: "Leverage the full extent of talent residing in the North-East to drive new enterprise investment and growth." There needs to be an audit of the skill set and we want to sell the fact that these people are available in the region for any potential investors that may be interested. These regional enterprise plans make a difference. I attended a number of events in Dundalk, where there is also much happening.

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