The Cabinet has been meeting in Ballaghaderreen in County Roscommon. At the meeting, the Minister for Public Enterprise, Mary O'Rourke, announced an investment of £8m in a service company in the automotive industry in County Westmeath. 240 jobs have been announced at the automotive fittings manufacturer, Iralco, at its plant at Collinstown. The Taoiseach and his Ministers then held a number of consultative fora with members of the Border, Midland and Western Regional Assembly.
Informal cabinet meetings have taken place outside Dublin in the past, but this is the first time that a formal meeting will take place outside the capital. The decision to go to the Roscommon town was taken to fulfil a promise made to the new Regional Assembly when the regionalisation process was launched following the EU decision to grant Objective One status to a number of counties in the West and the Midlands.
