IDA ‘cannot force firms to locate in the regions’

The head of the State body responsible for attracting foreign investment into the country yesterday said that even though he was very aware of the jobs crisis in the south-east, it was very hard for his agency to do anything about it.

“The south-east is suffering badly, but ultimately companies decide where they want to go,” IDA chief executive Barry O’Leary told the Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Innovation and Enterprise.

Mr O’Leary says the IDA had spent millions of euro in developing the appropriate support services for foreign direct investment in Waterford but that companies had decided to go elsewhere.