Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh Ghníomhaigh. I thank the Ceann Comhairle's office for selecting this matter and the Minister, Deputy Bruton, for being here in person. I know he has a busy schedule today as always.

I am very concerned with figures I obtained recently in respect of the number of people working in IDA-supported companies in the Cork and Kerry region. I am concerned about the breakdown of those figures and the number of such companies in the two counties. It is the largest regional division of the IDA, as I understand, with a population of 666,000, of whom 519,000 are in County Cork and 145,000 in County Kerry. While the population of County Cork is roughly 3.5 times that of County Kerry, the figures for employment in IDA-supported companies are unfortunately very different.

There are over 15 times the number of people employed in IDA companies in Cork than there are in Kerry even though the population in Cork is only three and a half times that of Kerry. There are 12 times more IDA companies in Cork than there are in Kerry. There are 146 IDA-supported companies in Cork employing 28,545 people while there are 23 IDA-supported companies employing 1,874 people in Kerry. Kerry could be doing much better than this. I do not mean to in any way overstate the importance of FDI in our economy but it certainly plays an important role and we cannot ignore it.

To date, the Cork-Kerry collective arrangement has not been working for Kerry. It is not delivering to the level it should be. We need to bring more IDA-supported companies to Kerry. I acknowledge that there has been great progress in the past number of years in terms of the expansion of IDA-supported companies in Kerry. There are over 300 net new jobs in those companies. That compares to major losses in 2008 to 2010 so we are going in the right direction but we could be doing more. I see that Waterford has its own regional office and I think something like that would be very suitable for Kerry.

We have a different arrangement when it comes to investment aid, which is something I have worked on since I entered this House. I thank the Minister for his efforts in putting Kerry on the investment aid map since 1 July 2014. We have different strengths and opportunities to push in the Kerry region that a Kerry office could bring to the fore to bring more industry to the country.

Hopefully, we have put in place measures to improve the fundamentals for Kerry, for example, the N22 Cork-Kerry road. Getting that on the capital plan has been a major step forward and has been one of the greatest socioeconomic developments for the county in many years. We need an office to push Kerry individually. If we had a stand-alone office in Kerry, would we have seen greater progress on the Shannon LNG project in recent years? Would companies like Amann Industries in Kerry, which left in 2010, have stayed a bit longer? Could we have done something differently? The feeling on the ground in Kerry is that we are the poor relation of Cork. When we look at those figures - 12 times the number of IDA-supported companies and 15 times the number of people employed - it certainly gives that notion credence.

I would be interested in hearing the Minister's views. I acknowledge the great progress that has been made in the past number of years in reducing the live register figures in Kerry. When I was first elected, we were heading for 18,000. We are now just over 11,000. At 34.94%, Kerry has seen the highest reduction in live register figures in the country since the launch of the action plan for jobs in February 2012. This is a major achievement but we need to keep it going and increased FDI would help us do that and build for the future.

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Griffin for raising this issue. As the Deputy knows, under my direction, the enterprise agencies have adopted a very strong regional focus, particularly in the past 12 months. I have worked with local stakeholders in the south west to develop a regional action plan for jobs for the region. This includes very strong ambitions for both Irish-owned and foreign-owned businesses in the region. The plan has set ambitious targets for FDI. They are a 30% to 40% increase in new investments, building an advance technology building in Tralee, building upon Kerry brand development initiatives as a marketing tool overseas, developing a regional Connect Ireland plan that is integrated with the local authorities' plans and activities and establishing a south west skills forum to ensure that the future skill needs of targeted sectors and enterprises are developed by the local institutes of education.

As part of its approach to implementing the regional strategy, the IDA has established a stand-alone regional office for the south west. Previously, the Cork office covered both the south east and the south west. The office in Waterford is an office for the south east. It is not an office specifically for one county.

The Deputy is correct in pointing out that Kerry has a smaller foreign-owned enterprise base than in Cork. However, it has exhibited strong growth in the past four years increasing jobs by 24%. This is in contrast to a 25% decline in the previous three years. I am confident that this strong progress can be maintained. On a proportional basis, this is faster growth than that experienced by most counties. Site visits to Kerry have increased significantly in the past 18 months, which is also a healthy sign. We are in the process of building an advance facility in Kerry.

The marketing of any regional area, including Kerry, for FDI is done through IDA Ireland's network of overseas offices. IDA Ireland actively incentivises and encourages investors to consider a range of potential locations in Ireland, although the ultimate locations selected are always decided by the companies themselves. As the Deputy has recognised, one of the boosts that will help us market Kerry more effectively is the reinstatement of regional aid from 1 July 2014. This allows the State to grant aid at enhanced rates to businesses to support new investment and employment in Ireland's more disadvantaged regions. This is a new element in the armoury of IDA Ireland in promoting the Kerry region.

IDA Ireland promotes Kerry as part of an integrated south west region, along with Cork, with access to the county population base of 145,048. The reality is that we must market ourselves in the context of pretty deep labour market pools across a region. We build a base of regional strengths as a magnet but we have also used the advance facility in Kerry as a way of making sure it does not just focus on the core but that we have other parts of the region providing alternatives. Based on the strengths of the region, IDA Ireland is particularly targeting emerging companies in the ICT, international financial services and global business services sectors. In addition to attracting new foreign direct investment, IDA Ireland continues to work closely with its existing clients in Kerry to encourage them to expand their operations in the county. As the Deputy has recognised, this has been very strong.

The IDA is satisfied that it is delivering a strong service to Kerry as an integral part of the south-west region. IDA Ireland is structured on a NUTS III regional basis - this is the south west as a single region - and there are no plans to change this. I would point out as an aside that, as the Deputy probably knows, the CEO is a Kerry man. In some ways, Kerry has occupied Wilton House as a way of ensuring it gets attention.

Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for his response. I am sure it is helpful having a Kerry man in there. Hopefully, there will be benefits in the future. I welcome the growth in recent years. Turning around the trend that was present between 2008 and 2010 so significantly was a great achievement. It could be argued that we are starting from a lower base but what really stands out is the huge difference between Cork and Kerry. Yes, it is the second largest urban centre in the Republic of Ireland and we must give a weighting to that. However, to have 15 times the number of people working in those companies is too skewed and we need to address that imbalance.

If we cannot establish a dedicated Kerry office, there should be greater emphasis on the county and a renewed effort to bring more to it and to highlight some of the positives that are in it. The Minister rightly referred to the institute of technology which will hopefully soon become a technological university, the technology park and the new advance facility, which is very welcome. However, we can also look at examples at around the county such as the town of Killorglin. I have raised this issue with the Minister previously. Killorglin is a shining example of a rural town that has really shown itself to be a success story. It contains indigenous companies like FEXCO, companies like Temmler and Astellas and smaller companies like Promed and Aqua Design. Liebherr is only a few miles down the road in Fossa. All these companies are operating and providing employment in a rural town that would be seen as peripheral by many but that is showing that one can do business and be very successful. It should be held up as the example to any prospective investor. They should be told to look at what has been done in Killorglin and told that they could go there, be among many other high-achieving companies and do very well. This is an area we need to look at.

The Minister has listened and I thank him for that. I was looking through the archives recently and saw a Topical Issue I raised in 2011 about the need for a regional approach to jobs planning and individual job plans for the regions. The Minister has done this and followed it through, which is a major step forward.

That is highly progressive. It has not been done before. I mentioned the strengths and opportunities in Kerry recently. They are at the heart of what the Minister is doing with the regional jobs plan, which will boost every region.

Shamelessly wearing my constituency hat, I have to say we have not punched high enough in Kerry to bring in foreign direct investment. We need more site visits to try to sell the county more. I hope the regional office for the south west will place a greater emphasis on redressing that imbalance.

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy is right to cite Killorglin as an example because the key to successful regional development is that the region identify competitive strengths it can develop and use to achieve job growth. Kerry is in a very strong position because it has core strength in a range of sectors, as the Deputy has pointed out. It has strength in food, tourism, financial services, engineering, agri-technology, multi-media technology, energy and marine. The key to the regional action plan is developing strategies for each of those sectors to be credibly leveraged and for the institute of technology, IT and other resources, stakeholders and local authorities to come in behind that programme of actions. That is the approach we are taking. Examples such as Killorglin are integrated into a bigger unit which is a magnet for the IDA.

The IDA, however, has to decide how best to market the south west and Kerry in particular. It has made a choice, having the advance facility, of integrating the IT into its effort rather than having stand-alone offices that give the impression of activity but do not deliver the goods on the ground. That is the strategic approach it has adopted. It creates the larger region because that big magnet is necessary to compete for projects. That can be used for spin-offs. For example, Dundalk has leveraged off the success of Dublin to build a strong centre. That model of hubs and spokes is the way to do this successfully.

Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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Almost half of the people on the live register in Kerry are in Tralee. If we could apply the model that has worked in Killorglin to Tralee, it would augur well for the future. That could be done and would help the situation in Tralee.

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The success of this will depend on the collaboration that can be built at local level. That is the key.