The midlands, including Offaly, has not secured its fair share of new investment, the IDA said this week.
Mr Frank Conlon, area director of IDA Ireland for the midlands and west - who made the acknowledgement - said the IDA strongly recognised the need to make better and faster progress in the economic development of Offaly.
His comments came when he addressed a meeting of Offaly County Council in Tullamore. The council members, concerned about rising job losses, invited representatives of the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and Shannon Development to address them on what was being done to improve the situation.
There were 2,528 people signing on the live register in Offaly at the end of last month, 235 more than a year ago.
Meanwhile, an enterprise centre in Birr has been idle for over two years.
Mr Conlon said the region had been affected by a number of sizeable closures in recent times. "The reality is that the decisions made by companies such as Lowe Alpine, Leoni, Snickers and Continental AG to close or reduce staff numbers have dealt a blow to IDA's efforts to achieve the pace of growth required," he said.
"But we must bear in mind that these decisions were driven by external factors and not any factors inherent to the region itself," he added.
However, he said, the absence of elements such as broad-band telecommunications militated against new industry locating in the county. It is understood that an announcement is imminent in relation to the inclusion of Tullamore in the broad-band infrastructure.
He blamed the downturn in the IT sector and the events of September 11th for the fact that there were "very few inquiries" from companies considering locating in the midlands.
He told the council members they should not depend solely on the IDA to deliver jobs for the region. "We need all parties to work in partnership and with the determination to win," he said.
Mr Conlon said the IDA traditionally would have sought to compensate for the perceived remoteness and disadvantages of regional locations by providing better incentive packages in an effort to get companies to locate. "Now IDA recognises that regional development will be much more effective if individual regions and locations can create a pull for themselves, becoming magnets of attraction in their own right and in this way drawing in new developments."
"The best can be won for the region only if it builds up attractive and competitive features that match other locations," he said.
He confirmed a company had recently expressed interest in the Birr enterprise centre and that negotiations with that company were now "at an advanced stage".
Mr Nick Mernagh, midlands regional director of Enterprise Ireland, said the county had not been getting "its appropriate share" of start-ups.
He said it was "not all that clear" why this was so. "It may be that other locations are more attractive and we need to look at what entrepreneurs want. I think in particular they are looking at good-quality incubation space, with good back-up facilities, well-managed shared services and good broad-band communications. That issue of incubation is one thing we need to look sharply at in Offaly," he said.
Mr Tomás Ó Domhnaill, regional development manager of Shannon Development, said the organisation had plans for south and west Offaly. Its first task was to work with companies that had prospects of growth, but these were mainly traditional industries and it was time to create the conditions which would attract high-tech industry, he said.
This meant improving the area's "connectivity" with the rest of the world and it would do so through the Birr Technology Centre, under construction at a cost of €4 million and due for completion in December. It was being modelled on the National Technology Park in Limerick.
"People who want to start technology businesses will have an infrastructure there as good as elsewhere in the world," he said. Links were also being established with Athlone Institute of Technology to ensure the park would have skilled back-up and training available.
All three have been asked to return to the council chamber in three months to give an account of their progress.