Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I was involved in setting up the growth centres. Athlone was a regional one, Sligo was another. We know our cities, Galway, Limerick, Waterford, Dublin and Cork are already thriving. In the growth centres of Athlone, Dundalk, Drogheda and Sligo, we try to target the infrastructure in order that those areas are ready to create jobs and can win jobs. We have seen the success of that in Athlone, as I have said. Stage 2 is that the region then benefits from that success and when companies make second-stage or third-stage investment, they often look beyond that regional centre they are in and pick the next one. When we sit down with IDA Ireland clients, we cannot drag them into an area, we must attract them through all the mechanisms that are there, to push them into a region. They then get familiar with a region and make decisions beyond that.

What is more important in the other towns Deputy Naughten referenced is that locally grown Irish companies must be the best chance that we can win here and we want to support them. I believe the regional enterprise plans are a key area to identify what works for each individual town and village into which you want to drive jobs. You have to put in place the ecosystem to make it happen, the supports and the opportunity to invest in buildings or hubs and all that infrastructure. However there has to be some suggestions locally as to how to make that happen. That includes the key sites, which the Deputy flagged before in his area, that could be looked at to develop into enterprise facilities as well. That is what the €145 million can make happen over the next two or three years if the right ideas come forward.

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