Ladies and Gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to be here today to launch the Capital Securities Midlands Gateway Economic Index. It is a particular pleasure for me to be launching this new initiative in Tullamore, which of course together with Athlone and Mullingar, forms the Midlands Gateway.

The drive of Seamus Sheerin and Capital Securities Corporation in launching the Midlands Gateway Economic Index is to be very much welcomed. Last December, when I launched the Indecon Report on a Strategic Development Framework for the Midlands Gateway, I concluded my speech by saying that the development of the Midlands Gateway is not a matter for the public sector alone and that the private sector also has a very important role to play. It is good to see such a sharp get-up-and-go resource being put in place at this stage.

This new initiative by Capital Securities will involve monitoring and researching the economy of the Midlands and producing a Business and Economic Index specific to the region every six months. One of the key needs for any business that is setting up or expanding is accurate and timely information on the region and its markets. Any initiative that addresses information gaps is to be welcomed and supported. I also understand that the Index will emphasise the existing business capability of the region and that it hopes to be a catalyst for new and established entrepreneurs to cooperate on local business opportunities. It will, I believe, be an important support tool for marketing and branding of this Gateway. Overall the initiative will provide an important service for the private sector, assisting it to play the role I referred to last December.

I look forward to your first Economic Index which I understand will be published in June this year. Rest assured I will examine it in great detail.

This initiative is in fact a vote of confidence in the economic and social future of the Midlands Gateway. The next generation of competitive advantage will be based on home generated innovations that sustain our existing industrial base (both indigenous and multinational) and add to it. Ireland is, therefore, going to need more people with an entrepreneurial and innovative spirit. This initiative will, I have no doubt, assist the development of locally based enterprise which the Gateway needs to become a more sustainable entity

The Midlands has traditionally faced the problem that it lacks an urban centre with the critical mass required to act as a major locomotive for economic growth in the way that the cities on our seaboard, such as Dublin, Cork and Galway, act as locomotives for economic development in their respective hinterlands. Under the National Spatial Strategy the Government adopted an innovative approach to developing critical mass in the Midlands. It envisaged the co-ordinated development of Athlone, Tullamore and Mullingar by combining their complementary strengths.

These have been many positive developments which underpin these complementary strengths. The population of this Gateway region has increased by over 22% in the last decade with the labour force increasing by more than 40% in the same period. The Live Register in that period has reduced by more than one-fifth. This is a testament to both the attractiveness of the region as a place to live and to the strong economic and job-creating performance of this economy over the past decade.

Whilst excellent economic progress has been recorded in the Midlands Gateway in recent years much of this is based on proximity to Dublin. The task for the future must be more development focused on local enterprise which can be sustained into the longer term.

This region has a lot to offer prospective investors. Its strengths include:

·        its central strategic location

·        its excellent links to Dublin on newly completed national roads

·        the prospect of excellent road connections to Cork, Limerick and Galway when the major inter-urban routes are completed in 2010

·        upgraded rail links to Dublin

·        improving social infrastructure, especially healthcare facilities such as the Midlands Regional Hospital

·        an excellent third level institution in the Athlone Institute of Technology

·        the willingness of cutting edge research institutions such as Georgia Tech Ireland to establish an Applied Research Institute in Athlone

·        implementation of the Strategic Development Framework for the Gateway drawn up by the Local Authorities, including the establishment of a Gateway Coordination Unit.

This last development is of particular importance and relates to a point I made when launching the Indecon Report on the development of the Gateway. I said then that thriving, dynamic and expansive urban growth centres are not summoned out of the ground by a wave of the magic wand of central Government. Central Government can help but cannot substitute for local knowledge, expertise and most of all for local commitment.

The Strategic Development Framework for the Midlands Gateway therefore represents a major step in collaboration between the Westmeath and Offaly local authorities in promoting and developing the linked gateway concept. It indicates that there is a joined up approach to development across the three constituent local authorities. To complement what is happening at local authority level, I was also pleased that I could attend the first meeting of the new Joint Chamber of Commerce established by the individual chambers of the three Gateway towns. I very much welcome this move by the private sector and I believe it also help to bring a more regional economic and business focus to assist planning and development in the region.

It is also a recognition that development in one part of the Gateway is not at the expense of somewhere else in the region but rather something that in the context of an integrated approach complements development elsewhere to the ultimate benefit of the whole area.

Of course I recognise that Central Government has a crucial role to play. The reality is that the bulk of key infrastructure investment is funded by the Exchequer and Commercial State Bodies. It was Central Government which devised the National Spatial Strategy with its focus on regional development based on Gateway Centres which can over time act as a counterbalance to the economic growth of the Greater Dublin Region.

On 23^rd January last the Government launched the National Development Plan 2007-2013. This Plan, involving expenditure of some €184 billion, is of a scale and ambition never seen before. Central to the Plan is better balance in regional development. It gives a major impetus to the implementation of the National Spatial Strategy by setting out a framework for the development of all of the Gateway areas over the period of the Plan.

In the case of the Midlands Gateway, the key development issues and investment requirements under the Plan include:

• strengthening the R&D capacity of the Athlone Institute of Technology and its linkages to industry/employers in the Region,
• further development of the N52, with accelerated priority to the provision of the Tullamore Bypass,
• more generally, development of enhanced road and public transport links between the three towns in the Gateway,
• development of strategic local roads and water services capacity to facilitate and attract development to the towns in the Gateway,
• enhancement of tourist facilities and amenities, building on the existing natural heritage and the potential of the inland waterways network, and
• development of Strategic sites as part of the IDA’s Strategic Sites Initiative.

There will be much more investment in other areas such as Housing, Childcare, First and Second Level Education facilities and the promotion of Social Inclusion. It all adds up to a major package of investment which in tandem with optimal cooperation at local level can see maximisation of the economic and social return for the resources applied.

The Midlands Gateway will also be entitled to put forward proposals for assistance under the Gateways Innovation Fund established under the NDP. This Fund, with an initial Exchequer contribution of €300 million for the years 2008-2010, will operate on a competitive basis and assist innovative projects and programmes which can demonstrate the capacity to help accelerate the development of individual Gateways. A key requirement will be to leverage co-funding from private and/or other public sector sources to maximise the quantum of investment. Only the best projects and programmes will be approved within the available resources. The Fund represents an opportunity and a challenge to the Midlands Gateway to show a tangible outcome to the integrated structures that have been put in place.

I must stress that the ambitious NDP investment programme is not just aspirational. Provided we maintain the sound management of the public finances which has been the hallmark of the last decade this investment in the Midlands and indeed throughout the country will be fully realised with lasting benefits.

The NDP is a vote of confidence in the future of Ireland and its constituent regions, including the Midlands. I hope and expect that this investment will lead to much demand for the services which will be made available by Seamus and his company and I wish him every success in this venture.

Thank you.