Léim ar aghaidh chuig an bpríomhábhar
Gnáthamharc

Seanad Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 2 May 2018

Vol. 257 No. 11

Commencement Matters

Primary Care Centres Provision

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. A new primary care centre is being built on the grounds of the old orthopaedic hospital in Cork. I recently visited the site and construction is probably 98% complete. My understanding is that ten GPs practising in the area will move to the centre. I seek clarification on the timeline regarding the opening of the facility. When will it be up and running? When will the GPs move in? What other services will be provided in the centre? A minor injuries unit adjoins the centre and that caters for a large number of people with minor injuries to their hands, ankles and so on who then do not have to attend emergency departments. The primary care centre will be a great addition. Will physiotherapy and X-ray and other scanning services be provided in the centre?

I thank the Senator for raising this issue, and I am happy to advise him that the new primary care centre in Gurranabraher, which is located on the grounds of St. Mary's health campus, was handed over to the HSE during Easter weekend this year. The HSE is currently preparing the facility to receive patients and is overseeing the fit-out of the equipment and systems such as information and communication technologies necessary to support the delivery of clinical services. I am sure the Senator will appreciate that this is a sizeable task given that this landmark centre is one of the largest in the country at more than 6,200 sq. m. That equates to approximately two thirds the size of Cork University Maternity Hospital and, therefore, it is inevitable that the equipping of such a significant building will take some time. Once the fit-out is complete, the Cork Kerry Community Healthcare Organisation will arrange for services to relocate on a phased basis. I understand that the expectation is that this will occur towards the end of the summer.

The centre will allow for the transfer of HSE services and staff spread across different locations into one state-of-the-art building that is designed to meet the needs of a modern health service. The centre will provide accommodation for four GP practices and five primary care teams to work together to meet the health needs of up to 40,000 people in the locality. It will be home to services such as public health and community nursing, home support, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy, including paediatric therapies. Other services will include ophthalmology, a warfarin clinic, an antenatal clinic and dietician serves. One particularly noteworthy aspect of this project is that it will provide accommodation for University College Cork, UCC, dental school to deliver planned undergraduate clinical training and dental services. This is an interesting development as it represents the first time that UCC will have a presence on the northside of Cork city.

This centre will, when fully operational, significantly enhance and expand healthcare provision for local residents, and it serves as an excellent example of the Government’s ongoing commitment to developing primary care services. There are 114 primary care centres in operation throughout the country and the Government has set aside resources for the further development of such centres and other community-based facilities under the national development plan. The case for the development of a more integrated, proactive and community-based care model is broadly accepted and forms a key part of the Slåintecare reform process. Primary care centres can facilitate such a model by offering a range of multi-disciplinary services that can provide "better care, closer to home" and, therefore, play a role in reducing the demand for hospital care.

The opening of the new centre in Gurranabraher will make the theory of primary care a reality for local people who will benefit from being able to access the vast majority of the healthcare services they need in one building in their community.

I thank the Minister for State for his very detailed reply. I know it will take place on a phased basis but I wonder when the GP practices are expected to start functioning from there? When will they be able to move in? Is there a planned timescale for each section to do so? Will everything be in place by the end of the year? As the Minister of State outlined, it is a huge centre that has been built within the timescale set out in the contract but what I am concerned about is when it will be occupied. I am concerned about ensuring that it will be occupied in a timely manner.

As I advised, it is hoped to have the fit-out completed towards the end of the summer and that the centre will be occupied on a phased basis. I do not have the detail of who will come first, be it the GPs or the therapists, but I can ask the HSE to come back to the Senator with further detail if it has any regarding what is due to happen. Occupation will commence towards the end of summer.

Services for People with Disabilities

I thank the Minister of State for attending. I am raising the issue of access to St. Michael's House in Dublin 9 for day service users. These people are having difficulty accessing transport. The Department is well aware of this issue. In a presentation made to me last week, however, I was told that it had 788 adult service users who are transported to day services every day, of whom 200 are supported by St. Michael's House drivers and escorts, 120 are transported by Vantastic, 96 are transported by residential house staff and bus, 41 are transported by day service staff and bus, 35 are transported by contract taxis, 38 are transported by family members - with 18 such arrangements being unsustainable - and 258 are transported by public transport, some with support. A total of 435 of these individuals live with residential supports from St. Michael's House. The Minister of State will appreciate that these are very vulnerable users of the service for whom transport is essential. If they do not have transport, the service will not be accessible to them.

I will outline some of their concerns and some of the deficiencies relating to the service. A total of eight service users who live at home cannot access the service because they have no transport. This is a serious situation for these eight individuals. A total of 38 individuals are being transported by family members and, as already stated, 18 of these arrangements are not sustainable. An issue of equity arises here. St. Michael's House also supports an ageing group of people with increasingly complex needs. The average age of primary care givers there is also increasing. Twenty individuals supported in St. Michael's House residential services are on a waiting list for transport, which impacts on residential service staff. A total of 325.5 staff hours could be released from the roster if an effective transport service was delivered.

The issue of transport to and from St. Michael's House to allow individuals to access its services has been ongoing for quite a number of years. There is no cheap solution and providing transport is expensive. What is even more expensive, however, is the compounded vulnerability, isolation, loneliness and sense of despair experienced by the families who need these services for their loved ones. The sense of isolation because of a lack of transport is quite acute. While I know the Minister of State and his Department will be looking at both the cost and the bottom line, I contend that the cost of not taking action will be quite profound.

I want to be constructive. I know there are no easy solutions that the Minister of State can offer today but I would ask that he and other Ministers, who I know have been in contact with and have met representatives from St. Michael's House, can try to find an equitable and sustainable solution. A number of people clearly need this service and cannot access it because of the lack of transport to which I refer. The families of the eight individuals I mentioned will be impacted upon as well because of the range of challenges their loved ones face. I plead with the Minister of State to look at the situation and provide transport for these individuals. They are very vulnerable and need the service and to be able to access it. Without transport, they will continue to be isolated. We are in a much better financial position than previously and we have the resources to do things we were unable to do in the past. I ask the Minister of State and the Department to prioritise this issue.

I thank the Senator for raising the issue of transport for people with disabilities attending HSE-funded day services, particularly St. Michael’s House. I welcome the opportunity to outline the current position in this regard.

The HSE funds St. Michael's House to provide healthcare services on its behalf to those with intellectual disabilities. St. Michael's House provides a range of community-based day, respite, residential and early services for people with intellectual disabilities. The services provided by the organisation cover all ages from young children to older persons. Clinical support services include psychiatry, medical, nursing, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, social work, psychology and nutrition services. Services are located both on the north side and south side of Dublin and in 2007, the service extended to provide residential care for children in Navan, County Meath. St. Michael's House provides these services on behalf of the HSE to clients based on individual assessed clinical need and healthcare is provided in the most appropriate setting to meet the client’s individual needs. The HSE is providing €87.8 million in funding to St. Michael's House in 2018.

In general, the provision of transport services is not part of core services within disability services. As a general rule, public transport should be used in all circumstances where it is an option. This is in keeping with the principle of mainstreaming, with a clear focus on ensuring that persons with disabilities have access to the normal range of services and participate in community life as far as possible. It must be noted that in general, day service users are in receipt of disability allowance and are automatically entitled to the free travel pass so there should be no additional cost burden at an individual level. The HSE intends to liaise with the National Transport Authority and disability service providers to explore ways in which the authority's services could assist people with disabilities. The HSE plans to explore the opportunities these units may provide to people with disabilities to access day services and participate in the social, educational and economic life of their local communities. St. Michael's House is aware of the transport issues affecting a number of its service users. However, funding is not provided for the transportation of young people to and from day services. When all other options are exhausted and a person cannot avail of a day service because he or she does not have transport to attend, the service provider is advised to use some of the service money to cover the transport costs. This usually results in the provision of a reduced quantum of service.

In regard to developments to meet the day service needs of school leavers each year, all new service locations under development are located as close as possible to where people reside in order to reduce the travel time for each person and enable him or her to be more connected with his or her local community. I trust that this clarifies the position.

With the greatest respect, it does not really do much, particularly for the eight service users who are at home and cannot access the service because they have no transport or the 18 individuals who are transported by family members, something which St. Michael's House has indicated is not sustainable. I ask the Minister of State to reconsider the answer he has provided, particularly in the context of these service users, who are isolated and who cannot use the service. I understand the constraints the Minister of State is under when he comes to the House with a script but we have a service for vulnerable people, a number of whom are at home and cannot access it because of lack of transport. The Minister of State's answer does not really give me, St. Michael's House or the families of these eight people and the 18 individuals whose current transport arrangements are made by family members and are unsustainable any comfort. Can the Department not meet representatives from St. Michael's House and find sustainable transport solutions for those 26 individuals?

I accept the Senator's frustration and the fact that there is nothing concrete in my reply to give him or the people in St. Michael's House any solace. With regard to the specific request made by the Senator, which was for funding for transport for people availing of day services, this is an issue not just for St. Michael's House but for a number of different centres where transport is an issue and is not funded.

When it goes back to the service provider to fund it, we can reduce the overall quantum of services available, which proves to be a difficulty. It is an issue we will have to address in the collective. I will convey the Senator's request to my officials and the HSE to re-examine the case of St. Michael's House. However, it is a wider issue and we will have to examine it nationwide.

Psychological Services

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I would like him to make a statement on the 6,000 children currently waiting for professional psychological services. He will be aware from his engagement with my colleague, Senator Freeman, of the demands on child and adult mental health services, CAMHS. I pay tribute to RTÉ for the recent "RTÉ Investigates" programme that was broadcast on this issue. It is a harrowing story. I met a woman in Dún Laoghaire by appointment last week who introduced me to her three children. She is having social housing difficulties. When she presented to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to discuss her housing application, she was told that she needed a professional psychologist's report. Most local authorities do not take GP letters into consideration. They require a letter from someone in the psychology field. While that costs money, more important, people have to wait. Politicians put their own hands in their pocket to pay for these reports because they are decent people and they want to assist their constituents to access professional psychological services in order that they can initially bring a report to the housing authority when they need help.

The "RTÉ Investigates" programme outlined many stories of families becoming desperate as they sought intervention, including assessments, for their loved ones. I have spoken to teachers who experience great difficulties with children. They have to call parents to come to the school to collect them. These parents need support. I constantly read about cases of juveniles involved in serious crime, including attempted murder, who did not get the resources and support they needed for many years. I do not doubt the Minister of State's commitment but if there is not early intervention for vulnerable children, what does the future hold for them and their families and our society?

I like to think that there will be a time every child will have a health and psychological assessment at least twice during the junior cycle. That happens in Canada and parts of the US. Children are assessed, not for benchmarking purposes, but to identify weaknesses, needs and supports and to put them in place. Will the Minister of State outline what is the plan going forward? It will be slow but something needs to be done. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation conference begins in Cork this afternoon. I spoke to an official earlier who mentioned patient trolley counts and said they should be published more regularly. The organisation is suggesting the number of children awaiting psychological services should be published on a monthly basis to hit the Government hard with facts about what is happening and that a formal count system should be put in place for social workers and children in care for whom a care plan is meant to be in place.

Clearly, the priority should be vulnerable children. The fact that 6,000 are waiting for services means we are at crisis point and something needs to be done about it. What is the Government's plan to address this significant issue?

I thank the Senator for raising the issue of counselling for children in primary care. Psychology services in primary care settings can play a key role in promoting good mental health. There are high rates of mental health problems among young people, and the research shows adolescence and early adulthood is the peak time for the onset of such issues. One in five young people have been found to have a diagnosable mental disorder at any one time. Given the scale of this challenge, it is essential that adolescents and young people with mild to moderate mental health needs should be able to access services in their local communities in a timely manner. Those with more severe mental health difficulties will require referral to secondary care services.

To address the current waiting lists for psychology services in primary care settings, additional Government funding of €5 million has been made available for the recruitment of 20 staff grade psychologists and 114 assistant psychologists. I understand that the vast majority of these posts were filled during the first quarter of this year, and there should be progress in more young patients being seen, and being seen more quickly.

It is also important to acknowledge the progress that has been made, and there has been a reduction in the numbers of children waiting for access to counselling services in primary care since July 2017, although I agree that much more needs to be done. As well as additional investment, the HSE is also examining the scope for improved ways of working through a service improvement initiative for counselling in primary care. These new ways of working include: standardised psychology protocols; a single point of contact for all non-crisis and non-complex emotional and behavioural referrals; and assistance for service users in stepping "up to" and "down from" more specialist health services. Other options to tackle waiting lists are also being pursued, including a computerised cognitive behavioural therapy programme. This programme utilises new technologies, delivering supports through weekly sessions based around a computer, with a healthcare professional as support.

Such developments build upon the investment in mental health services over recent years. I am sure the Senator and others Members will join me in welcoming the fact that funding made available for suicide prevention has more than tripled from €3.7 million in 2010 to €12 million this year, while the overall mental health budget has increased by €200 million since 2012 to more than €900 million today.

The Government acknowledges that waiting lists for counselling services for children in primary care are too high. That is why additional funding has been provided for psychology and assistant psychology posts, and the number of children waiting for services should now reduce further as these posts start to make an impact on access times for services. This investment and the service improvements I have outlined will facilitate further advancements within primary care and help improve and enhance the lives of young people who suffer mental illness and that of their families.

I particularly welcome the Senator's approach. The focus has always been on the upper end of services, which is CAMHS. We can keep chasing the queues for these services and focus all our attention, resources and reactive remedies on them or we can examine what is causing this to happen and provide solutions. We can treat the symptoms or treat the cause. I very much believe in treating the cause and that is what the Senator is suggesting. We need to intercept these issues at an earlier stage and we need to be more proactive in our screening, which the Senator is seeking. We need to pick up the issues at a lower level of intervention in order that when people are treated, their care is not escalated to CAMHS. Much of the debate in the media and political circles is about treating people at that level. Some people need to be treated by consultant psychiatrists but many young people who seek access to mental health services do not need to see a consultant. It is only in recent weeks that we have completed the recruitment of 20 staff grade psychologists and 114 assistant psychologists into the system at primary care level specifically to treat teenagers and other young people and to pick up their issues at a lower level of intervention, as advised by the Senator, thus preventing them from being escalated to CAMHS and a consultant psychiatrist. We are making significant progress. Additional Jigsaw sites have been announced and we are trying to beef up the supports that it and many other service providers are offering, which is very significant and helpful in this area.

I am mindful, given all the ongoing health-related controversies, that the Government will be judged on three issues - health, housing and education. Anyone who is on the ground will be aware of this. I met a woman the other day who said the political universe is meant to revolve around Leinster House. She asked what we were all doing in here and why it is always the HSE or some other body that is held responsible for issues. I replied that she had a point. We are the policymakers.

This issue revolves around early intervention and picking up on vulnerable children in school. Teachers in Montessori and primary schools can identify vulnerable children and behavioural issues that will lead to further problems for 90% of the children. The Minister of State is fully committed in this regard. I downloaded two speeches the Taoiseach made while doing some research for this debate. He said he was extremely disappointed but he leads the Government and the Minister of State is one of his appointees.

This is an important issue and targets should be set. Perhaps when I raise this again in three or four months, targets will be set in respect of how the Government is delivering on professional psychological services. This important, critical issue relates to the future health and well-being of our people and our country.

We need to keep an eye on the issue and see progress made. I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House and I thank him for his comprehensive response.

We can talk all day about figures and statistics, but much of that can hide the realities of real people who are struggling, looking for these services. The mental health budget has increased by €200 million up to €930 million in the past five years. I do not know of any other country that has increased its mental health budget by such a percentage over that time. That is not enough. It is easy for me is to secure additional funding and throw money at it. How we do what we do is much more important to me.

I am really focused on championing what the Senator has mentioned, which is redoubling our efforts down to the base of the pyramid to be more proactive and intuitive there. I want to roll out the STEPS-A programme in schools. That is a programme coming in from America related to the DBT programme which gives young people the ability to recognise feelings, articulate those feelings and deal with those feelings at a much younger age before they escalate to an acute stage. Too much of our approach to date has been reactive where we have been chasing the extremities and the acute side of mental illness. We need more action focused on the lower levels. I genuinely welcome the Senator's approach and the opportunity to outline some of the steps the Government is taking on that front.

Action Plan for Jobs

I tabled this Commencement matter because I am asking for more investment in job creation in north and east Mayo. I want to ensure the State agencies responsible for job creation and investment, IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and to a lesser extent the local enterprise office, are doing their job in this particular area. My focus is on this area as opposed to Mayo as a whole.

The last census showed a decline in population in the area. We have an older population and younger people have left, mainly to get work. In many cases they are highly educated young people. However, after getting third level qualifications they cannot find appropriate jobs in north and east Mayo. The region is highly dependent on the agrifood and tourism sectors. As we all know, these sectors will be particularly adversely impacted by Brexit. I ask the Minister of State to set out the plans to ramp up investment.

In November 2015 the Action Plan for Jobs west was launched with targets, some of which went up to 2019. It placed obligations on IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and the local enterprise offices to deliver. I ask the Minister of State to outline, based on his scorecard, how they have been delivering for north and east Mayo. How many visits have IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland organised for this area? What have they been doing? What are their successes? What is in the pipeline? What is planned?

The region has much to offer. We have a tradition of med-tech companies. Hollister must have been there for 40 years and it employs nearly 830 people. Coca-Cola and Baxter are located in the region. I have listed out some of the selling points that IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland should highlight to potential investors. A high-speed transatlantic fibre optic cable makes landfall at the Asahi site at Killala with planning permission for a data centre beside it. There is also planning permission for a renewable energy electricity plant beside it.

Up the road in Ballina, for about 15 years IDA Ireland has had a designated technology park with services to it, but has done nothing with it. Around Ballina there is a metropolitan area network. High-speed fibre optic cable services the town, which is very well serviced overall. There are metropolitan area networks around Ireland West Airport in Knock, Kiltimagh and Claremorris. What do we have to show for this? How does the Minister of State envisage the area selling itself as a hub? What is its selling point? As technology is up and coming, it would be an area where we should be able to sell ourselves. How is that being done?

The issues relating to planning permission for a data centre in Athenry have been well rehearsed. The Asahi plant has planning permission, but there is no data centre. A renewable energy plant could potentially be built beside it and the fibre optic cable is in place. The area has so much going for it but nothing seems to be happening. It is high time to challenge the State agencies so that we can see delivery for this area. The champions of industry and business and the people on the ground themselves have an appetite to get stuck in and see delivery under the Action Plan for Jobs.

I thank Senator Mulherin for raising the issue, which I have addressed in respect of other areas of the country where Deputies and Senators have similar concerns to those of the Senator. The regional action plan for jobs initiative has been a central pillar of the Government’s ability to create 200,000 new jobs by 2020, with 135,000 of these jobs to be located outside of Dublin. There is an overall goal to have a further 10% to 15% at work in each region by 2020 and to ensure the unemployment rate of each region is within 1 percentage point of the State average. Yesterday we got the very good news from the Central Statistics Office that for the first time in ten years the unemployment rate came down to 5.9%. That is a very important indicator of what is happening regarding job creation around the country.

The west regional action plan, covering Galway, Mayo and Roscommon, was launched in November 2015. It aims to increase employment in the region by 10% to 15% over the period to 2020, resulting in the delivery of 25,000 jobs. Implementation of the plan is overseen and monitored by a regional implementation committee made up of representatives from the public and private sector.

At the end of 2017 the west had an unemployment rate of 5.9%. It is important to point out that the number of people in employment in the west region increased by 15,500 between the first quarter of 2015, the baseline year, and the second quarter of 2017, representing good progress towards the target of 25,000 by 2020. Over the year to the second quarter of 2017, an additional 3,800 took up employment in the west region.

I am pleased to say that the overall employment trends in foreign direct investment for County Mayo are positive. In County Mayo there are 16 IDA Ireland-supported companies employing 4,462 in total. In the past two years there have been two notable successes. Coca-Cola announced an investment of €26 million in its Ballina operations and Fort Wayne Metals announced a €10 million expansion of its production operations in Castlebar.

County Mayo has experienced a 26% increase in FDI employment from 2012 to 2017. Job numbers in IDA Ireland client companies there have grown from 3,537 in 2012 to 4,462 at the end of last year. IDA Ireland’s client base in the county has performed well, retaining a healthy presence in the west region despite a challenging global economic operating environment over recent years. Over the past year alone, the number of IDA Ireland-supported jobs in Mayo increased by 5%, and the agency continues to work hard to create further employment opportunities in the county and to increase the number of multinational companies located there.

The Senator needs to understand that IDA Ireland is competing against many other countries, particularly the UK. That is why IDA Ireland needs to think regionally rather than focusing on certain towns. It is competing against cities such as Manchester and Birmingham with populations of about 3 million.

There is fierce competition in the context of jobs. While IDA Ireland can indicate where it would like the relevant company to locate, and the Senator talked about her area in this regard, ultimately, it is a matter for that company to decide where to locate.

In 2017, the number of Enterprise Ireland jobs increased by 7% in the west. Indigenous jobs are very important. On 16 April this year the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and I met the chairs of the regional action plan for jobs committees, including representatives from the west region, and other regional stakeholders to start a process to refresh and refocus all regional plans to ensure their relevance and impact out to 2020. It was a very important gathering in Farmleigh, where we met all the relevant stakeholders, including those from the north west, to outline the importance of what was needed in their regions. We can take that on board when preparing the regional action plan for jobs. On the same date, a further €30 million was announced in funding under the second call of the regional enterprise development fund, REDF, which is aimed at driving enterprise development and job creation in each region. Under the first call, the REDF has already supported 21 collaborative and innovative initiatives that can have a significant impact on enterprise development in the regions and nationally.

We must acknowledge the good work done by the local enterprise offices, LEOs. The LEO in Mayo works closely with businesses and organisations, such as Moy Valley Resources in Ballina, Ballina Chamber of Commerce and Destination North Mayo, to promote economic development and enterprise creation. Specific targeting of LEO supports is achieved through the use of the LEO outreach clinics which regularly occur. A significant number of training programmes and business advice clinics have taken place in Ballina over the past three years. Some 21 projects in food manufacturing and processing, other manufacturing, medical devices manufacture, engineering, business services, craft and furniture and light consumer goods manufacture have been supported in north and east Mayo, totalling €351,858 over the same period. Export assistance totalling €21,537 was also provided over the period in question. Since July of last year, the Leader local action group in Mayo has approved 50 projects for Leader funding of almost €1.8 million. Over half of these projects are aimed at rural economic development, enterprise development and job creation, which is one of the three programme themes under which Leader funding is provided.

I know Senator Mulherin works extremely hard for her constituents in Mayo, particularly in the north of the county from where she hails. I assure her my Department will work together with the agencies - Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and the LEOs - to ensure delivery of the employment targets for the county under the regional action plan for jobs up to 2020. We are working hard to ensure this happens, which is why we have had a lot of consultation with the various agencies and local stakeholders. I thank the Senator for raising this issue, which I have dealt with on many occasions in both Dáil and Seanad.

I thank the Minister of State. I acknowledge the remarkable work that has been done by him and his predecessors in the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation in reversing our fortunes and bringing us almost to a point of full employment nationally. However, even Project Ireland 2040 acknowledges regional imbalance. The west is playing catch-up. While I am talking about the north and the east of the county, Mayo is the third largest county, so we are talking about a vast area. I understand that FDI companies decide where they want to establish operations. I also understand the challenges and intricacies involved. However, I am asking what efforts have been made to encourage new FDI into Mayo. I acknowledge that there has been growth among the existing FDI companies. Those companies have been very successful and are very much part of the community and invest in it.

I set out a list for the Minister of State of what should be selling points for us, namely, the transatlantic fibre-optic cable, high-speed, state-of-the-art technology, planning permission for a data centre, a renewable power station and a technology park. Can he tell me why IDA Ireland is doing nothing with the technology park in Ballina? It has been there since I was on the town council and the council did everything to facilitate the acquisition and servicing of the site and planning permission, but nothing has been done with it. I am acutely aware of what is happening in the area. I do not expect FDI in every town and village as that would be unreasonable. I am asking that, nationally, we position ourselves as an open economy to attract FDI. We want and need more in this area. We have a substantial population and the figures show we are losing young people, notwithstanding jobs growth. The reason there has been a reduction in the unemployment figures is that people have emigrated or migrated to the big urban centres, putting pressure on housing, education and so on, resources which we have an abundance of in our area.

While the Minister may not be able to answer me today, I did flag these issues. I ask that he would perhaps get some answers about the technology park and about these different pieces of infrastructure, which would allow us to position ourselves as a technology hub. However, there does not seem to be an appetite to do that. Perhaps there is some work going on behind the scenes of which I am not aware. If so, the general public, the taxpayer and I would like to know about it.

I will follow up on that. As I said, I understand the Senator's passion for her area. We do not want to go back to the dark days of the past, when people had to emigrate from Mayo. When I go to the US on trade missions, the number of Mayo people, or the descendants of those who emigrated during the Famine and at other times, whom I meet is significant and perhaps more than from other counties. However, it is not all about FDI. The statistics relating to FDI show, as the Senator acknowledged, that it is important we nurture some of the existing companies as they grow and expand. Sometimes one can overlook the significance of those companies that are in Mayo. It is important we nurture them and ensure they continue to grow in the region. In fact, some 70% of new jobs in multinational companies are in existing companies that are already in the country, which is an important factor to take into account. Small to medium-sized industries employ 60% to 70% of the workforce, which is significant. That is why the LEOs and Enterprise Ireland have an important role to play.

The Senator referred to the site in Ballina and I will follow up on that for her. There are other counties which have sites that are earmarked for technological companies and they have the services provided and planning permission. I was recently in Ballinasloe, which is not too far from Mayo, and it also has a significant park. Obviously, the focus for IDA Ireland is to ensure it can maximise the investment around the country, particularly in those parks. As I said in my introduction, in the end companies go where they want their workforce to be located. They like to establish operations near universities and colleges, public transport, good road networks and so on. To be fair, the road network in Mayo is quite good, although I can see where the Senator is coming from in this regard.

The Senator mentioned the Galway-Mayo telecoms duct which runs 132 km between Ballymoneen in Galway to Bellanaboy in Mayo, adjacent to the gas pipeline. It is an important project, particularly in the area of broadband infrastructure for the west. The infrastructure currently provides a critical link between data centres and several multinational companies in Ireland, and the transatlantic fibre-optic cable at Killala is providing diversity and resilience to international connectivity, which is extremely important. We are looking at a situation where the future of work is changing and there is a huge emphasis on people working from home and having good connectivity and good broadband.

I will convey the Senator's concerns regarding the figures she mentioned. It is not always possible to get FDI into smaller areas, as she acknowledges, and that is something we are very conscious of. This is why we put a particular emphasis on the LEOs to ensure we can encourage start-ups, innovation and creativity. Often, those two, three, four, five or six jobs grow and grow, which is why we are encouraging this type of activity and giving the necessary funding and grant-aid to those companies. I will take on board the Senator's concerns. Balanced regional development is very much part of the Project Ireland 2040 plan, as well as ensuring the regions grow as much as the larger urban areas.

If the Senator looks at last year's statistics in respect of Enterprise Ireland, she will see that 65% of the 10,000 jobs it created were outside the greater Dublin area. The Senator also mentioned IDA Ireland and 45% of those jobs were created outside the greater Dublin area. The focus and emphasis are there to ensure that the regions are heard. When good public representatives like the Senator are raising these issues in the Upper House, it is a good sign that things will happen in the future. The Senator can be sure they are very much in my mind and that of the Minister, Deputy Humphreys.

Sitting suspended at 11.20 a.m. and resumed at 11.30 a.m.
Barr
Roinn