Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This week I spoke with Helen Downes, the CEO of Shannon Chamber. Among other things, we discussed balanced regional development. The Minister of State will be aware of the work of Shannon Chamber. I understand he will be addressing its members later this year in Dromoland, which we are all looking forward to. As he well knows, balanced regional development is a core part of the programme for Government. It has been committed to as a mission and underpinned by the national development plan, national planning framework and Project Ireland 2040. In 2022, there were 33,000 new jobs created in FDI companies in Ireland, which is great news. When we drill down into those figures, however, we see that the strongest regional performance was in the mid east, which reported a net change of 13.6%, followed by Dublin and the midlands. In view of those figures, a question about fair and equitable balanced development has to be asked. If we have a year where some regions far outperform others, what actions will IDA Ireland resolve to take the following year to improve growth in a region such as the mid west? Further, what support will the Minister of State lend to the same region?

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