Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On regional development, the IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland numbers from last year indicate that the majority of jobs created were actually created outside Dublin. Virtually every county in the country has seen an increase in employment and in population. There may be one or two exceptions, but that is all. There is a reason the regional meetings to engage with businesses are starting in Letterkenny.

We are finishing in Dublin. We are doing eight meetings outside of Dublin first to talk to businesses and listen to what they are saying about the pressures they are facing and so on in order that we can respond to that. I take the Deputy's points with regard to perception. By the way, some very innovative companies are using seaweed products in Ireland and exporting all over the world, adding significant value to those raw materials. That is what we want to see in sectors that have potential, for example, seaweed. I believe seaweed has much more potential than we are currently delivering on.

We need to piece this together. We have an enterprise strategy that takes us out to 2030, which is appropriate and very ambitious. We are heading off around the country now to speak to businesses about how they can successfully be part of that.

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