Interview:Companies have often been told to think globally and act locally. Yesterday, IDA chief executive Seán Dorgan was advising every location in Ireland to think and act regionally, rather than locally, if they wished to succeed.
"For most of the investment IDA competes for, the competition is from city regions with a population base of over a million people and in Ireland, only Dublin has a population of this size," he said.
"Regions have to come together, act regionally, think regionally rather than thinking locally. That is the only way we will achieve really good, high-quality investments outside of Dublin."
Despite huge investment under the National Development Plan, the infrastructure deficit remains an issue in some areas.
"I don't think we have lost any significant investment because of the quality of our infrastructure but it is difficult to sell some regional locations for the really high quality investments because of limitations in infrastructure."
With a new NDP due to be launched soon, it is imperative that Ireland continues to invest strongly in infrastructure and actively encourages knowledge-driven activities, he said.
"If we fail to provide essential infrastructure quickly, Dublin may falter and regions fail," said Mr Dorgan.
Providing competitive and robust energy supplies and encouraging students to study science, engineering and business were crucial to future success, as Ireland has transformed itself into an advanced knowledge-driven economy, he said.
Mr Dorgan said he was not concerned by a continuing fall in direct expenditure in the economy by IDA-supported companies, particularly for Irish materials and services.
"It is just a change in the nature of the global economy because of global sourcing and the Irish economy because we are positioned differently," he said.
"The second point is that, increasingly, companies come into Ireland for brain power rather than the components and the brain power is in research and development and higher-value-added activities which may not have a huge knock-on spend directly in Ireland but are still creating a value here."
IDA Ireland had a good pipeline of potential investments for the coming year, Mr Dorgan said.
"All the indications are good. Even in the first few months we would expect to see a good few announcements for locations around the country," he added.
