Recent figures highlighted by a Wexford/Wicklow TD have revealed that Ireland's Industrial Development Agency (IDA) have only visited Laois 44 times in the last ten years.

Fianna Fáil TD Malcolm Byrne has recently presented these figures, suggesting that the IDA “just focuses on Dublin”. Figures show that the IDA now has 303,000 jobs nationally, with 137,000 of those located in Dublin.

While Laois only received 44 visits within the last decade, and only two visits from the IDA last year, Dublin received 2,275 site visits since 2015. 

"That is not a satisfactory or acceptable level of interest in the county," Fianna Fáil TD Deputy Sean Fleming told the Leinster Express / Laois Live following the revelation of these figures.

Pictured: IDA's business park in Portlaoise

"They have a site in Portlaoise and things are being worked on there, we need to see a business put through there. We have one major location in the county, and we need to expand to offer more in the county," he said.

"Laois has a very big number of workers leaving the county to go to work, we have a tremendous workforce here. We need more visits from them. The other side of it is Laois County Council have their enterprise park and they have taken a big lead," the Deputy said.

"The fact that Enterprise Ireland and Laois County Council are doing good work, the IDA have let themselves down consistently. We have the lowest number of jobs, Laois needs to get higher on their priority list. The IDA are the missing link in the chain when it comes to job creation in Laois," he said.

"There must be more from the IDA in terms of foreign investment, we have a lot of domestic investment in Laois, but we need more foreign investment," Deputy Fleming finished.

There are currently 52 IDA client companies within the Midlands Region, comprising of Laois, Offaly, Westmeath and Longford, according to Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Peter Burke.

Of these 52 companies, there are 8,045 working across the midlands.

“IDA has made considerable investments in land, buildings and infrastructure across the Midlands Region and in 2022 IDA acquired c.18.46 hectares of land adjacent to the Business and Technology Park in Portlaoise and an additional c.4.25 hectares in 2024 with a total of c.29.66 hectares now available for promotion at the Business Park,” Minister Burke told Laois Fine Gael Deputy Willie Aird in response to a parliamentary question in February.