Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

The goal in the coming years is to build on the region's strengths and competencies to win that investment. I take the Deputy’s point that you have to have the facilities - sometimes you have to build it and they will come. Very often, the metric that gets people to come is if they see nice facilities and all the wraparound things, such as infrastructure, housing, footfall or whatever. I take the Deputy’s point. As somebody from Cavan-Monaghan, I know that we do not get many visits either, so I feel his pain. From my dealings with IDA Ireland so far, I know that sometimes it cannot dictate where companies go because their representatives come with particular requirements or a vision in their heads as to where they want to go. I take the point that a balance has to be struck if we are to create the proper regional development that we are all concerned about. A part of that is for IDA Ireland to have a greater spread across the regions. I take the Deputy’s points, which are very valid, and I will raise them with IDA Ireland.

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