I share the Deputy's concern about the lack of inward investment to the regions in general, including the Border region. That is what prompted the Government earlier this year to caterogise regional jobs policy as a priority area for attention. On foot of this, I announced last March that I had asked IDA Ireland to press ahead with the implementation of a new regional policy for employment growth in locations outside the larger urban centres. IDA Ireland has committed additional resources at senior executive level to oversee this new focus on the regions which will involve financial incentives will now be biased in favour of smaller regional locations, with higher grant levels as appropriate to each individual case; with the involvement of private sector investors, stimulating and supporting a major programme of modern advance factory construction at key regional locations and working in partnership with local authorities to have available quality, serviced sites at priority locations for new industrial investment.
The Deputy will appreciate that the decision as to location is ultimately made by the incoming industrialists. While this will continue to be the case, I feel the new regional policy to be administered by IDA Ireland will give an added bonus to smaller locations.
On the specific question of the Border region, the Deputy may be interested to know that the industrial development agencies under the remit of my Department were actively marketing the region for investment even before the announcement of the new regional policy focus and a certain level of progress has been achieved.
In the last year, IDA Ireland, for example, issued a number of press reports regarding inward investment and job creation-expansion in the Border counties. Following is a random sample of such announcements—