Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. In respect of the provision of workspace in enterprise centres, there is a market failure in that developers will not construct such workspace in areas such as counties Cavan and Monaghan because they will not get the rent return. That is the information available to me and that analysis is supported at official and private sector level too. We need to support the local authorities to a much greater extent in opening up lands and developing services. Then we need a dedicated fund to put in place the workspace.

If we are to further develop jobs at local level, we need work clusters. In many instances in my two counties, there are businesses that started on byroads and along laneways. Now, with the emphasis on protecting the environment we want to see as much of our employment as possible clustered in our towns and villages. There are great opportunities ahead to develop small clusters and small industrial parks that will provide the necessary work space for the persons starting off a business who do not have the capital to provide their own enterprise centre or workspace. We should have a new beginning in funding the development of enterprise centres.

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