Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. This Bill will increase the lifetime cap on Oireachtas grants made payable to IDA Ireland and will empower Enterprise Ireland to award research and development grants to the horticultural sector. We know that foreign direct investment is pivotal in providing over 200,000 IDA Ireland-supported jobs in our economy. IDA Ireland estimates that for every ten jobs generated by foreign direct investment, a further seven are generated in the wider economy. As a rural Deputy, I am very interested in any Bill that will have an impact on job creation in Ireland, including rural areas such as west Cork, particularly given the dire news of the loss of 320 jobs at Novartis in Ringaskiddy and of 500 jobs in Shannon. As the loss of 80 jobs in Dublin was also announced yesterday, this has been a dire series of announcements in a short period. I must commend the wonderful opportunities the Ludgate Hub has brought to Skibbereen in west Cork. We need to attract future investment like this to west Cork to generate more jobs and sustain the future of rural Ireland. IDA Ireland's ongoing work to increase foreign direct investment in Ireland needs to be supported. We need to look at empowering IDA Ireland to acquire property for future development, not just for immediate use. Enterprise Ireland works with Ireland's most ambitious entrepreneurs and businesses and has helped them to scale up and reach new export markets by funding market insight or access to an international network, resulting in a record figure of €23.3 billion in export sales by client companies in 2018, of which €7.9 billion involved the UK market. With that in mind, it is vital that access to the UK market is protected. We must be prepared for a worst-case scenario.

We all know that Ireland is an extremely attractive location for foreign companies to do business in. I am biased towards west Cork and all it has to offer. Towns such as Baltimore, Skibbereen, Clonakilty, Bantry, Bandon and Kinsale, to name a few, should be considered as locations for foreign companies. There are many positive reasons that foreign companies wish to set up in Ireland and our exceptionally talented and highly educated workforce is pivotal in these decisions. I welcome changes that will ensure job opportunities for Ireland, particular west Cork, but I must ask what development aid is being granted to the peninsulas and islands in west Cork. IDA Ireland and the Government seem to be unable or uninterested when it comes to funding developments in rural areas like Castletownbere, Bantry, the Mizen Peninsula, Dunmanway, Ballinspittle and Schull. In one of these areas, €500,000 of local money was spent to make sure a project was shovel-ready to secure funding under the rural regeneration and development fund but was refused. Rural areas fight their corners as best they can to see whether they can pick up funding from IDA Ireland but are told that because their areas are so rural, it will always be that bit more difficult to attract businesses. Consequently, they must look at other sources of funding that allow them to make improvements. The rural regeneration and development fund was put forward as an alternative for rural communities to allow them to rebuild and create employment. It is sad to think that the project to which I referred spent €500,000 and was shovel-ready but got nothing. It was one of 48 projects in County Cork that received no funding in the last round of the rural regeneration and development fund. We must get IDA Ireland and other bodies to concentrate on creating employment in rural areas because they are dying. It is okay if Dublin, Cork and Galway are doing well. I do not begrudge anyone doing well but not everybody can leave west Cork in the morning and travel 80 to 90 miles to work. This is what is happening because people cannot get employment in their communities. This is replicated in towns like Ballinadee, Kilbrittain, all the way west to Goleen, down into Allihies and Eyeries and places like Sheep's Head. Everybody is travelling long distances to find gainful employment. The reason for that is because there has been no great commitment from Government bodies like IDA Ireland and others that are well funded and could really make an effort to see whether they can create employment in these areas. Where did the money from the rural regeneration and development fund go? The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht got quite a lot of money from it, while areas in rural Ireland did not.

If extra funds remain, I ask the Government to concentrate expenditure in rural areas in the future. West Cork, in particular, is an area starved of gainful employment opportunities.

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