Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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211. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the extent to which her plans to encourage an even dispersal of investment throughout rural Ireland are on target in view of the necessity to achieve an evenly based balanced economy with equal opportunities throughout; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14680/17]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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IDA Ireland is making good progress towards its target of increasing the level of investment in each region by 30% to 40% by 2019. In 2016, 52% of all Agency supported jobs created were based outside of Dublin.

While IDA Ireland does everything in its power to ensure an even spread of investments, it is important to realise that the ultimate decision on location rests solely with the company. There is a global trend to base foreign direct investment around large urban areas. Quite often, companies also want to be located near competitors or clusters of other similar enterprises. As a result, some businesses are only interested in investing in our larger cities.

The Government remains committed to achieving balanced regional development and this ambition is reflected in our eight Regional Action Plans for Jobs (RAPJs). The aim of the RAPJs is to ensure that the unemployment rate of each region is within one percentage point of the State average by 2020. These plans are delivering clear results with an implementation rate of over 90% for each region. This improvement is also reflected in the increase in regional employment in 2016, with 70% of all new jobs created last year located outside Dublin.