Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for that extensive response. It was great to have him in Longford recently. He saw first-hand the excellent work that is under way at Lir Analytical, where Michael Savage and the team are leading in the area of biosecurity in animal feed production and healthcare. The one deficiency that was pointed out related to a site for an advanced factory and also for Enterprise Ireland-supported and LEO-supported businesses. This is critically important. The Minister of State's colleague alluded to the regional enterprise plans and how local councils can use them to identify and develop sites. We have a see-saw situation whereby IDA Ireland is saying that there needs to be an onus on the local authority to drive this and the local authorities are sitting back and saying that IDA Ireland needs to come and provide advanced building solutions. Much like the rest of the country, we cannot wait. We need to see something happen in respect of this matter. I need to see what the Department can do to impress on the council the need to move forward with this.

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