Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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12. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if there are any planned IDA or FDI visits to counties Cavan or Monaghan in 2017; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14433/17]

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to ask the Minister if any IDA or FDI visits are planned to counties Cavan or Monaghan in 2017 and if she will make a statement on the matter.

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I am informed that, for reasons of commercial sensitivity and client confidentiality, IDA Ireland does not comment on upcoming site visits by potential investors.

The agency maintains statistics in relation to site visits by potential investors on a quarterly basis. The latest data available cover 2016 only. During 2016 there was a total of two IDA Ireland sponsored site visits by potential investors to County Cavan and two site visits to County Monaghan.

It is expected that data on site visits for the first quarter of 2017 will be available next month.

It is important also to note that data on site visits is not necessarily an accurate measure of the level of foreign direct investment. IDA actively encourages clients to locate in regional locations. The final decision, however, lies with the investor. Cavan and Monaghan at end of 2016 had 12 companies and 1,340 jobs supported by the IDA.

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I am going to read out some figures to the Minister regarding IDA visits to Cavan and Monaghan from 2012 to 2016. I have to read them into the record because they are so appalling. In Cavan in 2012 we had three visits, in 2013 we had two visits, in 2014 we had one, in 2015 we had zero and in 2016 we had two. Monaghan, similarly, had zero in 2012, one in 2013, zero in 2014, two in 2015 and two visits in 2016.

Out of 636 total visits nationwide in 2016, Cavan and Monaghan had only two IDA site visits each while Dublin alone had 284. I know the Minister will say the companies decide where they want to go and all the rest but there seriously has to be a concentrated emphasis on making a special case for the Border counties.

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I hear the Deputy. She knows that I have met the Cavan and Monaghan groups and the Deputies from the area. The figures from the IDA are not great but in Monaghan there are 5,168 jobs supported by Enterprise Ireland. That is also an agency under my aegis. There are 903 jobs supported by the Local Enterprise Offices, LEOs. It is the same kind of story in Cavan where there are 1,162 LEO jobs and 5,221 jobs from Enterprise Ireland. I know the Deputy might not be getting it from the IDA but I am really pushing. I know that it is the policy of the IDA to make sure that companies that come looking in Ireland go to visit the regions, but honestly it is the chief executives that decide where they will visit. I will keep pushing however.

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I acknowledge the work the Minister is trying to do. Obviously I also acknowledge the work that Enterprise Ireland is doing and the work done by our LEOs in Cavan and Monaghan, including assistant head of enterprise, Jim Fox, in Cavan and John McEntagart, head of the Monaghan LEO. That work is wonderful, however we are having a brain drain out of our two counties. The skilled jobs are just not there.

I ask the Minister to work with her colleagues, including in the Department of Education and Skills and particularly in the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, and specifically the Minister, Deputy Heather Humphreys, to ensure such co-operation between the various Departments. Of course we do not have the infrastructure to make these places attractive. I am the first to acknowledge that. The biggest disgrace of all is that our N3 stops at the Cavan border. If one looks at a map of this island, it is absolutely atrocious and disgraceful to see how our counties have been treated in terms of infrastructure, particularly with roads. That certainly does not help our case when the Minister is out there with the IDA is trying to attract jobs and visits. There really needs to be cooperation between the various Departments to make sure there is a special case.

I am not exaggerating. The Minister should take out the map. I was shocked myself at a recent meeting in Monaghan County Council when a map was taken out to show us the road infrastructure. We do not have a rail service. That cross-departmental work is going to be key to making us attractive to the IDA. I ask the Minister please to do that.

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I hear exactly what the Deputy is saying but we do have a north-east, north-west action plan. We have a plan to make sure that jobs are created, whether they are IDA jobs, which I would like to see more of, or Enterprise Ireland jobs, LEO jobs or InterTradeIreland jobs. Just to put it on the record, there were actually 2,339 jobs created by InterTradeIreland in 2016. One of the key actions in that regional action plan is an M1 digital payments cluster. This is a key part of that action plan for jobs which proposes the creation of a digital payments hub in Drogheda. The Deputy knows that I co-hosted the meeting on that with the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and that it was in her office with the TDs from Cavan and Monaghan.

We also had the establishment of the two regional skills fora, one for the north east and one for the north west, in the plan. We are also supporting a wide range of tourism developments across the regions, including a 22 km greenway project between County Monaghan and County Armagh. It is absolutely on my radar. I assure the Deputy that the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, reminds me of that every time I meet her as do our other TDs.