There is a major disparity between the pace of development and job growth in Dublin, other centres along the east coast and other large urban areas vis-à-vis that in rural Ireland. This was illustrated in a parliamentary question reply I received from the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton, yesterday, in which he said, of the total foreign direct investment, FDI, companies located in Ireland, 50%, totalling 596 companies, are located in the greater Dublin region. The east coast has seen a significant recovery and growth, with annual employment growth of approximately 5%. In the other urban areas around the country, there is employment growth of approximately 2%. Unfortunately, in the rest of rural Ireland, employment growth is practically nil.

The Minister stated that Cork has 146 IDA Ireland client companies, Galway has 63, and Limerick has 48. In my county, Kerry, there is an industrial wasteland and we are down to a meagre 12 IDA Ireland companies, while Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice's county, Roscommon, has eight companies, Tipperary has 11 and Monaghan has six. In a plethora of counties one can count the FDI companies on one hand. I refer to IDA Ireland investment being carried into the rest of rural Ireland. Some 1,090 IDA Ireland visits took place between 2013 and 2015, of which 561 were directly to Dublin. In contrast to my county, Kerry, our neighbouring county, Cork, had 83 visits. My peripheral county, Kerry, is an industrial wasteland and this reflects what is happening in the rest of rural Ireland. It is very late in the time of the Government to ensure there is an economic balance. Will the Taoiseach correct the imbalance, set out to do so immediately, and put the plan in place in the lifetime of the Government? Will he take the focus off the major urban areas and give an equal opportunity to rural Ireland, which has been decimated?

Hear, hear.

I thank the Deputy for his comments and question, which is well thought out. Deputy Griffin raised the same matter in a Topical Issue a couple of weeks ago. As a representative of a very large tract of rural Ireland, the Deputy knows that when one ploughs a field, seeds it and rolls it, one has to let it grow.

One has to till it first.

It is a one-pass system.

It is the same with trying to get an economy moving, coming from the depths of where we were to a point where we can see real improvement. I agree that many places in provincial Ireland have not seen the return to growth we would like. In Kerry, there has been a drop in the live register of 34% since the regional action plan was introduced. The Minister, Deputy Bruton, introduced a national Action Plan for Jobs focused on FDI, developing small and medium enterprises with Enterprise Ireland and changing the structure of the local enterprise offices, LEOs, in every county council.

It did not focus on Kerry.

We followed this with introducing regional action plans which are focused on both the strengths and weaknesses of each area, including the Deputy's. Hospitality, the Wild Atlantic Way, broadband development, road infrastructure, water infrastructure and wastewater treatment are all opportunities to make areas more attractive for investment.

We do not have broadband either.

Although not every crossroads will have FDI, there is no reason that small and medium enterprises cannot follow through with the LEOs on establishing businesses, recruiting people more easily and having access to credit that was never there before. Two indigenous Kerry companies have gone global, namely, the Kerry Group, which has established another investment in Kildare which is an international magnet for the best companies in the world, and Dairymaster, which has gone beyond the county bounds. They have become international global companies, and this is where we need to grow.

Regional development is a specific priority of the Minister, Deputy Bruton. The regional action plans which have been launched and developed for each region are focused on it. In the Deputy's area in the south west, infrastructural developments need to be put in place, and this is part of the capital programme with the new Garda stations, 300 schools and other improvements.

The Government closed down the Garda stations.

Deputies Healy-Rae and Mattie McGrath are like Tom and Jerry. When one goes quiet, the other starts.

The improvements of all these facilities are very important. While the Deputy's question is well meant, employment is growing in his area and the live register numbers have fallen because of new jobs being created.

It is because of emigration.

We want it to continue into the future.

We are all very optimistic that economic growth will continue. However, we are still faced with the reality that, as of the beginning of November, 203,000 people are jobless. The Taoiseach mentioned my county, Kerry, where we are fortunate to have a buoyant tourism industry. However, it is seasonal. We are very hopeful that the Wild Atlantic Way will contribute and will add very much to the tourism product, which I am sure it will. We need to stretch out the shoulder ends of the year to gain the major benefits we can reap from it.

Can we have your question now?

We still have to face the whole matter here. It is very much mirrored in the Kerry situation as well. Some 55% of those who are unemployed are long-term unemployed. That is a very frightening figure, to be honest about it.

Come on, Deputy, put your supplementary question.

The rate of long-term unemployment increased from 1.5% in 2005 to 6.7% in 2014. The current rate is the highest in Europe. It is 1.6% above the EU average.

Sorry, Deputy, you are not listening to me. Would you put your supplementary question? You are over time.

I will conclude by making the point that the longer people stay on the unemployed register, the harder it is for them to get back into the workforce. We need to address the matter of rural renewal to get a bit of life back into our villages and towns. We should incentivise small-time employers by giving every possible support to them. We need to take a serious look at the rates situation.

Hear, hear.

The exorbitant rates in this country are putting people out of business. We certainly have to implement the budget measures.

I think you have done a good tour of the whole economy.

The Wild Atlantic Way.

He has done a tour of south Kerry.

I remind Deputy Fleming that the level of unemployment has fallen from 15.2% to 8.9%. People said a few years ago that this was impossible. The number of people who are long-term unemployed has decreased by 46%, from over 204,000 when the action plan was launched in 2012 to 109,800 today. One sixth of the 136,000 new jobs that have been created throughout the country, or 22,000 jobs, have been created by IDA Ireland. The remaining five sixths of new jobs have been created in small and medium-sized indigenous enterprises. That is what we need to focus on in the future.

Some 56% of them are in Dublin.

The Minister has changed the structure so that anybody with an idea can walk into his or her local enterprise office and get all the advice and information he or she needs to set up a company.

The local enterprise offices have no money.

People get advice on how to employ people and access credit so that they can promote their ideas for manufacture or for export. We need to ensure companies throughout the country have no fear. They should not be afraid to go beyond the bounds of their own localities. Many companies are proving that they are well able to sell competitively on the international market the software or manufactured goods they produce. Deputy Fleming's county has invested serious money in quality hospitality enterprises over the last 40 years. I think the development of the new Wild Atlantic Way concept is paying dividends throughout counties Kerry and Cork and will continue to do so for many years to come. The action plan, which focused on Deputy Fleming's own area and on other individual areas throughout the country, was based on their strengths and weaknesses. It looked at what could be done in counties Louth, Wexford, Donegal, Monaghan and Laois and the other relevant areas. Plans were drawn up in consultation with the agencies in each region so that the individual matters could be worked through. As I have said, the live register figures speak for themselves.