Ms Julie Sinnamon:

The way the cost per job is computed takes into account, on an annual basis, all of the inflows into Enterprise Ireland from shares that are disposed of and also grants that are repaid.

In the early 2000's there was a number of significant share disposals which brought in the net amount that was going out of the agency on an annual basis. Therefore, those have washed through the system reflecting in higher figures in more recent years.

Another thing which has driven the cost per job up in recent times is a restructure of a number of sectors, particularly the food sector. There was a beef and sheapmeat fund and a dairy investment fund. Those funds were really about restructuring those sectors. Between now and 2020 we will see substantial increases in those sectors. What we have been doing is putting in place significant capital investment programmes both to restructure the industries and also to build new capacity to handle the dairy sector, in particular, post-quotas coming off next month.

We have seen some significant capital investments which brings up the cost per job. We have also seen, in the early 2000s, net inflows from investments disposed of which brought down the cost per job. It is not really like for like but that is the way the figure is computed. Also, in the 2008-2010 period there was a significant recession and we spent a lot of funding helping companies to sustain jobs through the enterprise stabilisation fund and reoriented them into new overseas markets.