Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

Will the Deputy Leader ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to come into the House to deal with yesterday's admission by the chief executive of the IDA of its failure to bring industry into the regions, particularly the BMW region? Various Members on this side of the House have requested a debate on the region and the failure of the Government to acknowledge that it has failed to bring infrastructure and jobs into it. By 2006, all the regions will have to compete on equal terms for new jobs. The fact that only seven of the 20 projects taking place this year will be outside Dublin and only one will be in the BMW region is an indictment of the failure of the Government, and the Minister in particular, to provide jobs in the region, despite the fact that it is the policy of the IDA to bring jobs to the regions on an equity basis. It is of the utmost importance that we deal with this before we close the hatches on the BMW region.