Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)
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Question 496: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the reason Dublin and not Cork, the region with the highest concentration of pharmaceutical plants in the country, has been chosen as the location for the development of a national institute for bioprocessing research and training. [10595/05]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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IDA Ireland is the agency with statutory responsibility for the attraction of foreign direct investment. FDI, to Ireland and its regions. While I may give general policy directives to the agency, I am precluded under the Acts from giving directives regarding individual undertakings or from giving preference to one area over others.

On 23 July 2004, IDA Ireland, through a series of newspaper advertisements, invited proposals from collaborative groups of academic institutions to undertake the establishment of the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training in Ireland. A detailed invitation specification document was issued to prospective applicants which outlined the background, the needs to be addressed, required elements, outputs-deliverables expected, criteria for adjudication and the proposal content details to be submitted.

Proposals were received from three consortia by the closing date of 15 October 2004 and a panel of international experts reviewed the quality, value and impact of the proposed activity on 15 November 2004. The panel's evaluation report, which recommends that IDA in the first instance negotiate with the consortium led by UCD, with Trinity College Dublin and Sligo Institute of Technology as partners, was considered by the board of IDA Ireland on 8 December 2004. They agreed to proceed to the next stage in the process and commence negotiations as recommended by the panel.

I understand these negotiations are well under way and are dealing with the wide range of substantive issues and recommendations identified in the evaluation report, which were considered by the international experts to be necessary for the successful establishment of the institute. Needless to say, the issue of location will be an integral part of this negotiation process. It is anticipated that a proposal, which addresses all the issues for success, will be considered by the board of IDA Ireland within the coming months before being recommended to Government for consideration.