Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Leader outlining the very important business today in respect of the Microenterprise Loan Fund (Amendment) Bill 2020. One of the most common parliamentary questions tabled here in the Dáil Chamber asks the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation to outline how many investor visits IDA Ireland has conducted in a particular year and in which counties they took place. The answer is then followed by the gnashing of Deputies' teeth when they attack the lack of visits to their county vis-à-visthose in Dublin or Cork. There will be a very even playing field this year, going by the comments made by the head of IDA Ireland, Martin Shanahan, yesterday. He outlined how physical investor visits have fallen to zero and virtual tours conducted by IDA Ireland have yielded one deal for this particular year. In outlining his mid-year results, Mr. Shanahan reported a 6% decline in projects won this year by foreign direct investment, FDI, visits. This is going to prove a big challenge for IDA Ireland, which is needed for FDI, over the next six months.

The stimulus package for SMEs from the microenterprise fund is critically important but the coming weeks are critical for the higher end of the spectrum as well. Our work needs to be pressed further, especially by the Minister of State, Deputy Troy, and the Minister, Deputy Varadkar. I look forward to the July stimulus package because we need to protect businesses in the here and now and show there is proper investment in order to protect jobs. I raised this matter the other day regarding one industry across the whole range of industries, but what was outlined by Martin Shanahan yesterday is quite worrying. We need a very positive response regarding IDA Ireland from all members of the Government who are working purely on this issue, in particular from the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, and the Minister of State, Deputy Troy.