I want to raise an issue with the Taoiseach today regarding the lack of Industrial Development Authority, IDA, supported jobs in County Laois. I think the Taoiseach will be shocked by what I have to say. The IDA has ignored Laois for many years. There are 145 IDA-supported jobs in County Laois. That is by far the bottom of its list by a long shot. If the Laois figures were replicated nationally, those figures would amount to 8,000 IDA-supported jobs across the country. If that was the case, the Government would have closed up the IDA for not doing its job years ago. Its record is so bad in County Laois and this has to be dealt with. I am pleading for the Taoiseach's personal help with the IDA chief executive and senior management to do something about this.
What happens every time we contact it we are referred to the regional office, which is based in Athlone. What I will say about the four counties the IDA covers in the midlands is that there are 8,000 jobs but only 145 of them are in Laois. Even when we look at the midlands region, it has only 2% of the jobs from IDA-supported companies. When we look at it nationally, it is even worse.
I got the figures for site visits to County Laois by the IDA for the most recent available year, which is 2024, from a response to a parliamentary question. There were two site visits to County Laois but there were 18 to Westmeath. Why? The IDA regional office is in Athlone and there is an absolute complete and total bias by the people in the regional office in Athlone in terms of bringing people to other counties. When somebody want to come to the midlands, what do they do? The people in the office in Athlone take them for a little drive down the road to some place on the outskirts of Athlone. That is what is happening. Of course, the IDA will say to us that it cannot tell people where to go; they want to go to places where there is already a cluster of other IDA companies. In pursuing that, however, it has left Laois totally out on a limb.
I think the Taoiseach will be shocked to hear that the figures are as stark as they are. I will shortly have a few words to say about Laois's central location, the motorway and the best train service of any regional town in Ireland. The population has gone from 30,000 to 90,000 in my time as a TD. The population of Portlaoise has gone from 10,000 to 30,000 in the last number of years. It is the fastest growing town Ireland. We are providing houses, as the Government wants us to do. Our local authority is ahead of every other country when it comes to the number of houses. We are getting those houses and we appreciate them. Of course, there are issues but we do not have jobs in Laois for most people.
