John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the issue of the M1 corridor, which links Ireland's two largest cities of Dublin and Belfast and at the very heart of which lie two of Ireland's largest towns, Dundalk and Drogheda - Dundalk, naturally enough, being the bigger one, despite what the CSO says. The M1 corridor was launched in Castlebellingham, County Louth, last year and is the brainchild of Dundalk accountant Paddy Malone, who is a former president of the chamber of commerce in the town and is known to many of us in this House. The point of the M1 corridor - a part of the world the Leader is from - is to highlight how investment-ready the north east is as a region. Some 61% of the population is a commuter-ready workforce with third level degrees. It is Ireland's most densely populated region, with one in three people under the age of 25.By developing the north-east region further, we are hugely reducing the number of people commuting to and working in Dublin. At present 77,000 people travel down the M1, M2 and M3 to commute to Dublin and I firmly believe that we need to try to reduce that number and to attract people further into our regions through jobs and investments.

There are three basic things we need to do in this region. The first one is to attract new greenfield foreign direct investment. The second thing we need to do is to have a second-site location. A second-site location is where a multinational which is already present in Ireland obtains a second site which it can move into and create further employment in that area. The third thing is very important because this area is right there on the front lines of the Border and Brexit. We have to make a real effort to try to attract businesses from Northern Ireland and the UK which may want to have a base within the EU to set up in the area. It would be timely if we asked the Tánaiste, Deputy Leo Varadkar, to come to this House in the next couple of weeks to debate his plans for the M1 corridor and how he is going to bring jobs, investment and growth to every region of Ireland. I would very much appreciate that.