Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this important issue. She has underlined to a degree some of the difficulties facing IDA Ireland in securing a regional spread. Much of the mobile investment in recent years has been high tech, high skill, research-related investment which has, to a large degree, been focused on cities that offer that environment. The figures show that Galway is not doing particularly badly. It has had major employment expansion under IDA Ireland in each of the last three years; therefore, it is a very competitive urban environment in that context.

The Senator raised the wider issue of the ambition IDA Ireland had set in its original strategy of 50% of new investments in regions outside Dublin and Cork. It has been unable to achieve that target. The result for 2013, at 30%, was ahead of the outcome of 25% in 2012. Clearly, we would like to do better in this regard. To that end, we are considering a broad-based regional enterprise strategy. In looking at regional enterprise strategies we must also have a realistic view of the role of foreign investment. Foreign investment overall in Ireland represents approximately 8% of employment; 92% of employment is represented by other areas. Too often the debate on the need to develop successful regions tends to revolve around securing IDA Ireland companies. It is certainly my ambition to win IDA Ireland companies, but it is also my ambition to develop a strong indigenous engine of growth. In that context, the west has been particularly successful in identifying medical devices as a sector. Not only has it attracted some of the big international players with which we are familiar, it has also developed a very strong indigenous sub-sector. In many ways, it is one of the best examples of a thruster, where there are both international and domestic players. We must look at sectors in which regions have a competitive advantage. That means examining traditional areas of strength such as food production and tourism, as well as new areas of strength such as medical devices and ICT and seeking to identify where regions have a competitive advantage and building on it.

As the Senator correctly pointed out, we have reviewed the foreign directive investment strategy. Forfás has done work in that area which is close to completion. I hope it will help us to identify mobile investments that we could win and that would fit the competitive advantage of different regions. To promote that thinking we have got IDA Ireland to focus on emerging companies that are making their first move outside their home base in the United States, typically, or Europe. We have sought to identify these as companies that would probably be willing to look at regional locations more favourably than others. We have also developed ConnectIreland as a way of using the regional contacts people have as part of the instruments for attracting foreign investment.

We fought off efforts at EU level to narrow the amount of regional aid we can give. The European Union's initial proposal was that just 25% of the country be eligible for regional aid. We succeeded in reversing that figure to 51%. This year, therefore, we have been able to include County Kerry, for example, and three individual locations in Arklow, Kells and Athy, which allows us to give regional aid in these areas. That is an important tool for both Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland in seeking to develop a better regional spread. We also fought off efforts at EU level to withdraw all aid to larger companies in the regions, which was the European Union's initial proposal. We have protected that tool.

As public representatives, we must look more at entrepreneurship and its development within areas and regions. The local enterprise offices have been put in place and are a very good model. They are rooted in a service level agreement with Enterprise Ireland which is the centre of excellence in developing new policy and have a local presence with the local authorities in order that they bring the might of the local authorities to bear on creating an environment that supports start-ups. While I acknowledge that we would like to do better in IDA Ireland area and that we will continue to seek to develop ways of doing this, we also seek a broader discussion of the challenges in developing a strong enterprise sector in the regions based on their competitive advantages. We must broaden that debate from just seeking to win a mobile investment. A far deeper debate is required. I hope that by establishing a regional enterprise framework we will be able to meet stakeholders in each region and have that broader debate which, of course, is also essential in winning additional foreign investment. We must put our best foot forward in each region.