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

I wish Deputy Calleary the very best in his new role as Minister of State. I do no doubt his capabilities and he was an excellent choice.

The purpose of this Bill is "to provide for a process to allow for certain transactions that may present risks to the security or public order of the State to be reviewed by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment". IDA Ireland reported that 249 new investments were won in 2021. Of that, 161 were North American, 68 were European, and 21 were from countries classified as growth markets. In January 2021, IDA Ireland launched its new strategy: Driving Recovery and Sustainable Growth 2021-2024.

One of the pillars of the strategy relates to regions and IDA Ireland set out a target of having half of all investments, 400 of an 800 target from 2021 to 2024, going to regional locations. How will this be achieved? Are accountable mechanisms in place to ensure that half of all new projects are located in regional areas? If there is no accountability or follow-up, then this strategy will amount to nothing more than an empty target. Equally, it is important that real and substantive projects are located into regional areas, not merely the smaller or less attractive projects.

Based on the most recent data, 53% or 133 of the 249 new investments went to regional locations, with employment growth in every region, as shown in figure No. 4 in the strategy. The latest European Attractiveness Survey 2022 reported that Ireland was one of Europe’s top ten locations for FDI with a market share of 3% of all FDI investment in 2021, and that it attracts the highest number of projects per capita among the top ten.

We are talking a great deal about IDA Ireland and jobs but I want to ask about jobs in rural areas. In the past number of years we have seen the demise of the fishing industry. It will lead to a significant loss of jobs in my constituency. The attacks the Green Party has made on agriculture in this country, supported by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, will lead to a loss of jobs throughout rural Ireland. I was talking to a number of farmers at the National Ploughing Championships yesterday morning before I came up here and they have serious worries. Where are the jobs going to be and where are they going to get jobs in rural areas like Castletownbere, Mizen Head or Sheep’s Head? One does not have to go that far west; one only has to go as far as Bandon, down along the coastline to Timoleague, Barryroe and places like that.

They are finding it very difficult and have serious worries. They were gifted people at their jobs but I find that when IDA Ireland comes to town, it comes to a big town and does not come to rural communities that are losing jobs. I live in one of those rural communities where good jobs are hard to come by.

We look at the investment that has not been made by the Government in our roads. In recent years in west Cork, the Innishannon bypass has been ignored, the Bandon southern and northern relief road has been ignored and the Bantry relief road has received no money. We need to invest in infrastructure if we want to get the good quality jobs we are talking about and safeguard good jobs in our country. The problem is that we have shocking transport infrastructure. I will be talking tomorrow morning to the Minister, Deputy Ryan, about Connecting Ireland but I would call it “Disconnecting Ireland” because it has disconnected my constituency, which has little or no transport. It has the same as it had ten, 15 or 20 years ago.

These are all issues that feed into the labour market. If there is good transport and good quality roads, people and businesses are inclined to come into an area and invest in communities that are starved of investment. Unfortunately, we are losing jobs in rural communities for a number of reasons. Of course, transport and fuel costs are huge, as are electricity costs. Business owners are coming to me to talk about their doors closing because they do not see a future. I even see it with some of the hotels in west Cork, which are closing down nearly half of the week already, and we are only in September. Jobs are vital. I know people have come here with great ideas. They want to start a floating terminal in Cork for LNG, which is desperately needed in this country, but the Minister, Deputy Ryan, is kicking the can down the road and putting jobs in serious jeopardy. It is the same with the Barryroe drilling. We have potential for better jobs in rural communities but the Minister and the Government continue to ignore the facts, although the facts are there in black and white in front of them.

The Minister of State is a new man in the job and I wish him the very best. When IDA Ireland is talking about jobs, I ask him to make sure jobs are given in a geographical spread and that rural Ireland gets as much as urban Ireland, which is very important.

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