Mark Dearey (Green Party)

I spoke briefly yesterday on the Border economy and I wish to return to the subject with a little more hope in my heart following the announcement that Warner Chilcott intend to establish 200 jobs in a new pharmaceutical facility at Mullagharlin, just outside Dundalk. It is a town with a proud manufacturing tradition that has reinvented itself a number of times from being a railway town to a shoe manufacturing and brewery town. I hope this pharmaceutical announcement marks the beginning of Dundalk taking its place in the new smart economy. It is a tremendous testimony to the work of the local authorities, from which I have just departed, that in tandem with the IDA they have created a key site for high quality inward investment in Ireland in recent times at Finnabair Industrial Park. That park, which comprises approximately 150 acres of serviced sites with adequate gas, electricity, transportation and communication links, makes possible announcements such as the one yesterday. It is an indication of how local authorities, in tandem with the IDA, and with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, which I also commend in this regard, can work together to make smaller local regional centres attractive. It bodes well for a place that has suffered dreadfully. Initially, this was through the scourge of the Troubles, which have since passed although it still occasionally raises its awful head. More recently, it has suffered from the asymmetry that exists between the economies on either side of the Border and which must be addressed. I welcome this announcement and commend all who have played a part in it.