Tony McCormack (Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. We are all very happy with the endeavours of the IDA. As I said in my question, the IDA is a world leader in what it does in attracting foreign direct investment into Ireland. In fact, it is so good that it is copied by many other countries around the place. We talk about the 50% of companies that the IDA will endeavour to locate outside of the Dublin region. Unfortunately, this was the case in the previous plan and the plan previous to that and again, unfortunately, we have not had 50% of the companies located outside the Dublin area. I would like to impose on the Minister of State to talk to the IDA and ensure that the 50% is upheld and that we get balanced growth right across the country. We already know that the infrastructure here in Dublin is creaking and needs updating whereas down the country we have infrastructure that is well able to take care of the foreign direct investment companies that need to locate there.

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