Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My Department is working collectively to strengthen the connections and interdependence of businesses through engagement with our nine regional enterprise plans. Our focus is on region-specific enterprise development, including sectoral networking and clustering initiatives, such as the regional technical cluster initiative, and opportunities for Irish companies to connect with multinationals based in Ireland to raise awareness of the capabilities of the SMEs across a range of sectors. We must be cognisant of the fact that Ireland is an attractive destination for FDI. This offers our SMEs considerable opportunities to work with and feed into the operations of multinationals. I accept what the Deputy said about supporting SMEs and working with multinationals. There are plans afoot through Enterprise Ireland to do that.

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