Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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Meath is a great county. It is well located and has good land. Its people are well educated, industrious, creative and conscientious. While it is a given that every Member will regularly come into this Chamber and claim that his or her county needs further funding, this is not a typical Member's whinge.

Meath is unique in that it is an outlier when it comes to State funding and investment. There are 28 local authorities in the State. In the context of practically every single investment criteria, Meath is last on the list. Louth, Kildare and Wicklow are comparable to Meath in terms of both distance from Dublin and population size. In 2017, there were 1,419 IDA Ireland jobs in Meath. In Kildare, there were 9,282. That is six times the number of IDA Ireland jobs in Meath. Louth and Wicklow have significantly smaller populations than Meath, but they had 3,702 and 2,264 IDA jobs respectively. Westmeath, with one third of the population of County Meath, also has double the number of IDA Ireland jobs.

Meath has the highest number of commuters in the country. This morning, more Meath people left the county in order to get to work than actually work in the county. Navan is the largest town in the country without a rail line. If we are going to assign to Meath the status of commuter county, the Government should at least put in the infrastructure to allow that to happen. Bus Éireann services in the county over the past six months have been a joke. No other county sees its bus services fail continually to show up and leave commuters stranded for hours. This creates a radical difficulty with hundreds of hours wasted on commuting. It also costs Meath people significantly when they have to commute outside of the county.

Meath has the lowest business rates base per capitain the country. If one adds that to the crap local government investment we get from the Government, it means we have the lowest expenditure per local authority per capitain the State. Meath’s spend in this area is 61% of the national average. Expenditure on housing and building by Meath’s local authority is 45% of the national average. Spending on recreational amenities is 43% of the national average. Spending on water services in Meath is 60% of the national average. County Meath has the lowest number of gardaí deployed in the State. Whole swathes of Meath would have no more than a handful of gardaí on duty at any one time. Meath is the only county without a divisional headquarters. True to form, Louth and Meath are at the bottom nationally for funding for mental health services. Meath has the lowest local authority expenditure and the lowest number of county council staff per capita. That has a radical effect on the level of service delivery in Meath.

Why is it that such inequalities exist an hour from Dublin? Logically, there should be some level of equality with regard to the delivery of funding. When will the Government change that?

Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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One of the headline targets of A Programme for partnership Government is to deliver sustainable full employment across all regions of the country with 200,000 jobs to be created by 2020, 135,000 of which will be outside Dublin. The Government is working hard to achieve the most even possible distribution of foreign direct investment across the country. IDA Ireland is focused on that goal and is targeting an increase in investment of 30% to 40% in every region as part of its strategy for the period 2015 to 2019. Significant progress is being made towards these objectives, with 45% of all new IDA Ireland client company jobs created last year being outside Dublin. There are now over 122,000 people employed across 649 firms in IDA Ireland client companies outside the capital.

IDA Ireland markets Meath as part of its mid-east region, which also incorporates Kildare and Wicklow. The wider area is home to 56 multinational companies, 17 of which are located in Meath. In terms of direct investment in the form of grant aid, a total of €1.84 million has been paid to IDA Ireland client companies in Meath since 2013. There has been some significant investment in the county in past two years, with Shire announcing plans to expand its global biotechnology manufacturing capacity over the next four years. It is expected that this will lead to the creation of approximately 400 permanent jobs at Piercetown, County Meath. This news followed Facebook’s announcement in January 2016 of the construction of a new data centre in Clonee. Construction for the €200 million data centre is currently taking place with over 1,000 workers now on site daily.

The county’s proximity to transport hubs and population centres is among its key strengths. IDA Ireland is working hard to secure new investment for Meath and it continues to draw the attention of investors to the county.

It should also be emphasised that foreign direct investment only forms one part of investment in regional locations. Indigenous enterprise is responsible for a significant portion of employment growth, especially outside Dublin. Enterprise Ireland-supported companies continue to perform well in the regions, with a 5% increase in employment reported in Meath in 2017. Enterprise Ireland has approximately 500 client companies in the mid-east region with 170 of these located in County Meath, employing some 7,300 people. Enterprise Ireland has invested almost €8 million in the period from 2014 to 2017 in these companies. Last year, Enterprise Ireland supported companies created 650 jobs in Meath. When losses are taken into account, a net gain of 309 jobs was recorded. This is an increase of 4.2% on 2016. Some key Enterprise Ireland client companies include Kepak, Nurendale, Largo Foods, Kilsaran Concrete and Xtratherm. In June, with the support of Enterprise Ireland, I announced College Group’s €10 million expansion with the construction of a new biofuel facility in Nobber, with the creation of 90 construction jobs and an additional 25 long-term job opportunities for graduates. Enterprise Ireland also co-funded the establishment of three community enterprise centres in County Meath. In January 2016, we launched the mid-east action plan for jobs to support enterprise and employment across Kildare, Meath and Wicklow. This plan aims to increase employment in the region by 10% to 15% by 2020, resulting in the delivery of 31,500 jobs.

Substantial progress is being made in the mid-east. Since the start of 2015, 22,800 more people are in employment in the region. The mid-east now has an unemployment rate of 5.4%, lower than the State rate of 5.7%. In 2017, Enterprise Ireland jobs increased by 4% in the mid-east while IDA Ireland jobs across the region grew by 6%.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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Again, the Minister of State lumped Meath in with that mid-east region. I identified in my first contribution that there are radical inequalities even within that mid-east region.

The second thing the Minister of State did was what his Government does regularly, namely, when we show a systematic problem, a Minister points to the exceptions that prove the rule. Of course there are individual cases that are against the trend to which I have referred, but the trend is still significant and needs to be addressed.

The other issue is that the Minister of State failed to address the question of Government investment in County Meath. In this regard, local authority expenditure in Meath is €537 per person. We are the only county in the State for which the figure is less than €600. In Cork, that investment is €1,217 per person. Why should a Government preside over well over double the allocation of investment in one county over another? The most frustrating thing about this trend is that it is actually getting worse. Year after year I have brought up this issue. We have a heap of Fine Gael Deputies in County Meath. Probably the only statistic we excel in is Fine Gael Deputies per capita. Perhaps that is why the problem exists in the first place. It is deeply frustrating. Those Fine Gael Deputies have told us to raise the revenue locally. To do so in respect of increases in rents, parking fees, etc., we would have to raise our revenue generation locally by approximately 180%, which would radically squeeze people in Meath.

The heart of this problem, which has not been seen, is that there has been a 78% increase in population in Meath in 20 years. We have seen the largest increase in population of any county during that period, and the central government model of funding does not take into consideration this demographic change whatsoever. As a result, Meath people contribute approximately €4,100 per capita yet get far less back per capita from the State in investment. I do not begrudge any other county its investment. I commend any county on securing investment. All we are looking to do is equalise the investment per capita throughout the State in order that the people in Meath get a fair shot of IDA investment, EI investment and State investment. If this is not done, Fine Gael will continue to stuff, hammer and shaft people in Meath. I call on the Minister of State to ensure that per capita investment change is made under this Government.

Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Tóibín was selective himself at the beginning of his reply. He talked about IDA investment and the reduced number of IDA investments in County Meath. He is correct when Meath is compared with other counties in this regard, but may I compare the Enterprise Ireland record? He did not mention that. There are 7,302 people employed in Enterprise Ireland client companies in Meath. Let us compare that to Wicklow, which he mentioned, and Louth. Louth has 6,121 people employed in Enterprise Ireland client companies.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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Louth has a smaller population. Louth and Wicklow-----

Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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No. Let us talk about the counties now. The Deputy mentioned the counties and the IDA. I am going back to the indigenous sector because it is extremely important. IDA-----

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister of State will find-----

Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Excuse me, Deputy Tóibín. We realise the IDA goes into hubs all over the country, and every Deputy here, including me, has concerns about IDA jobs. We would love to see more of them in the regions. As I mentioned in my statement, it is important to concentrate on the indigenous sector and Enterprise Ireland. Let us talk also about the local enterprise offices, which I have not mentioned yet. They created, I think, 284 jobs gross in Meath last year. They are a very important part of our job figures in County Meath. Why? They have penetrated almost every community because they encourage start-ups and entrepreneurs and they work in conjunction with the local authority.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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What is the Department figure for Kildare?

Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy mentioned the Garda in his contribution. I have the Minister for Justice and Equality alongside me. I am informed by the Garda authorities that the new divisional headquarters in the Meath division is to be based in Navan. The 2021 programme provides for significant works at the existing divisional headquarters, namely, the complete demolition of the existing cell block as well as the construction of new cell blocks and overhead office accommodation in Garda stations. Therefore, Meath is not being totally ignored.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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There is no divisional headquarters-----

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy had his say.

Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Regarding the Government's 2014 national planning framework, there is an ambition to reverse rural decline. This includes County Meath as well as the other counties. It is extremely important for us that we reach our targets in job creation and balanced regional development. Of the 200,000 jobs we say we will create - we have created a considerable number up to now - 135,000 will be in the regions, and Meath will be included in that.

I appreciate the Deputy's concerns. I would do the very same if I were in his shoes as a Deputy elected in the area to ensure that Meath gets its share of investment, but he needs to refer as well to the positives that are happening in County Meath.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister of State cannot argue with the facts I gave him.

Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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I understand where the Deputy is coming from.