Michael Comiskey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join Senator Hildegard Naughton in welcoming the IDA ireland proposals. This is great news and the proposals are important for the west, including counties Sligo and Leitrim. A fund of €50 million will be drawn down in 2015 to promote jobs in these areas. We have significant job creation in the eastern part of the country, but critics would say there has not been enough investment west of the Shannon. This investment west of the Shannon is a real opportunity. Some 612 jobs have been created in Sligo in the past couple of years and 352 in County Leitrim. We can now look forward to adding to that figure. The people with the lead responsibility in this area will be the local authorities and communities and Enterprise Ireland. If people have ideas, they will have the opportunity to put them on paper and talk to IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland and to move forward with them. This is good news.

It is welcome that the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Simon Coveney, is in the United States signing deals for beef exports. The good news is the US market will take approximately 1 billion tonnes of Irish beef in the next period. Any of us who have been out and about in cattle marts recently know that coming on the back of a difficult 2014, this expected buoyant trade is good for farmers. This has come about because of the good deals that have been signed in the agri sector.