There has been a call for the Government to establish a Midlands action plan to rejuvenate the region.
TDs from the Midlands say that it is lagging behind both Dublin and the West in the area of economic investment.
Fine Gael enterprise and trade spokesman Charles Flanagan said that the region has been badly hit by job losses in recent years.
"Over the past number of years around 2,000 jobs have been shed by Bord na Mona and the ESB. There has been no replacement and no attempt to replace the jobs shed and that has added to difficulties in the region," he said.