asked the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Tourism the reason the advance factory, built by the IDA at Mullaghboy, Navan, County Meath, has not yet been allocated an industry, particularly as there is an acute employment situation in the area; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

: I am informed that the Industrial Development Authority are vigorously promoting the 44,500 sq. ft. advance factory at Mullaghboy, Navan, for new industry.

A number of industrialists have already been brought by the IDA to the factory, which was completed just a few months ago, but no proposals have yet emerged.

: Would the Minister not agree that in an area such as Navan, which is convenient to the city, it seems a little odd that a factory cannot be found for that area, particularly as there for the last two-and-a-half years?

: The factory has only very recently been completed. It is not unusual for an advance factory not to be filled immediately. In fact, it is quite common.

: Is the Minister saying they did not know it would not be completed a few months ago?

: They did know.

: They built it on spec——

: A question, please, Deputy.

: If industrial development was simply a question of building factories and automatically filling them, I would not be in my present job nor would anybody else.

: It appears from some of the statements made recently by the Minister that all he has to do is go to America, Germany, or some place like that and, hey presto, he comes back with a pocketful of factories. If it is that easy, why can he not find an industry, with the assistance of the IDA, to fill the factory which has been completed a little longer than a few months ago?

: The factory was completed at the end of June 1980.