Mr. Martin Shanahan:

I thank the Deputy. The net figure arising from jobs created and lost compares reasonably favourably to international norms. In the period from 2008 to 2013 or 2014, the number of job losses as a function of the global economic downturn increased. Our job is essentially maintain job losses at their lowest possible point.

We work with companies in order to help them to transform and develop. There will always be a level of churn within the base which is the same all over and is not just a feature in Ireland - it is a feature of international economies in terms of their structure. I do not think there is anything particular out of order in that regard. We look at what is done in other jurisdictions. In particular, we examine at what is done in other jurisdictions which we believe are equally engaged in attracting foreign direct investment. Last week, I met my counterpart who is the head of the Economic Development Board, EDB, which is the Singaporean development agency, to discuss its outlook for foreign direct investment and to share our outlook for foreign direct investment with it. Obviously, we compete in the marketplace on a lot of matters. There are also areas on which two small economies such as ours can share experiences. We are satisfied that we are doing as well as anybody else in terms of what we do to create jobs, to market Ireland and to sustain existing jobs.

The level of investment in capital projects is very encouraging because, essentially, it makes the jobs "sticky". In other words, if companies are going to invest a significant amount of money in buildings, in the kitting them out and in the case of pharma, biopharma and medical devices, in particular, in very sophisticated equipment, all of which is not easily transported and means that the companies are here for longer periods. These projects are complex in nature and, therefore, the planning processes tend to be more complex.

To answer a point made by a member, we are happy with the planning processes. We engage heavily, we have our own property portfolio and we help clients through this process. The quicker the process is, the better from our perspective. We compete internationally so having certainty about the timeframes for the process is really important. The quicker a process can be expedited the better, while ensuring that the planning process is robust. Obviously, we would not want it to be anything less than robust. The more certainty there is about the process rather than the outcome is desirable from IDA Ireland's perspective and from the point of view of winning foreign direct investment.

There is a continued and disproportionate focus on the part of the media, both nationally and internationally, on taxation in Ireland. We have a very transparent, consistent and competitive taxation regime. We should be unapologetic about the fact that we compete in the area of tax. All jurisdictions compete on tax. Ireland has been a full participant in the OECD process in respect of base erosion and profit shifting. Ireland has made changes to its taxation regime over the past two budgetary cycles. It has addressed the issue of stateless companies. It has also addressed the residency rules, which means that if one is registered in Ireland, one is now also tax resident here. There is a grandfather period for a number of companies. In the most recent budget, the Minister for Finance announced that Ireland would be one of the first countries to introduce country-by-country reporting. Independent studies show that Ireland's effective tax rate is very close to its headline rate. Therefore, we have nothing to be concerned about.

Companies are interested in taxation but they are interested in what the Irish offering is and what our plans are. They are interested in understanding the features of the Irish taxation system. Companies want to know that the 12.5% rate, which has been constant for some time, will remain. They are interested in the new developments over the past two budgetary cycles where we have improved the research and development tax credit. The knowledge development box has been introduced, which means income associated with intellectual property, as a result of research and development in Ireland, will now attract a 6.25% rate and companies are interested in same. The rules around amortisation of IP are attractive. All of those aspects add up to a fairly competitive offering.

Two companies were mentioned that have been involved in mergers and acquisitions activity recently - Pfizer and Allergan. Companies make decisions for commercial reasons. Often when they engage in mergers and acquisitions activity, the first order of business is deciding whether they are a good fit. They have to make a commercial decision. I suspect the second aspect is analysing location from a tax perspective. I am not saying that is always the case but when two big companies come together, there has to be more to it than just proceeding for tax reasons. Both of the companies in question have had a long engagement with Ireland - in Pfizer's case since the late 1960s and in Allergan's case since the late 1970s. Collectively, they have multiple plants in Ireland and employ over 4,000 people. We work with both companies individually at present. When the merger happens, we will work with them jointly. We view the merger as an opportunity to increase substance even further as they transfer their international headquarters to Ireland.

In terms of costs and cost competitiveness, I shall outline the areas that we continually need to consider but first I wish to point out that Ireland is cost competitive. There has been a lot of negative impacts from the economic downturn. However, one of the positive impacts, if one can call it that, is that Ireland became more competitive in terms of property prices and rents and in the context of wage levels remaining constant. There has been an upturn in the economy so we need to ensure that we do not lose our competitiveness and keep it relative to everybody else. That is the bar for us. We are competing with other countries so we must be relative to everybody else not relative to what happens here over time whether it is good, bad or indifferent. That is what we must keep an eye on.

In terms of regional strategies, IDA Ireland has been heavily involved in the development of regional strategies and the regional Action Plan for Jobs, together with our colleagues in Enterprise Ireland and a number of other agencies. We very much welcome the development of regional strategies. It puts a focus on job creation and enterprise development at a regional level. It brings together stakeholders that can make a difference at a regional level and develop plans for a region. Job creation is obviously not just about foreign direct investment, it is about what is being done by Enterprise Ireland, local enterprise offices, Bord Fáilte, local authorities, IDA Ireland and everybody else.

The numbers announced for the targeted projects are consistent with what has been published on pages 35 and 36 of IDA Ireland's strategy. In our strategy, we set out the number of investments we are targeting. As Deputy Calleary pointed out, they are of the order of between 30% and 40% over the five-year period. There is nothing easy about the challenge we have set out in our strategy. It going to be very difficult but everything we do is done with a view to increasing investment in regional areas. Let me outline some of things that we are doing in that regard. First, the development of regional action plans will be of assistance. Different regions will come together to identify what can be targeted and what areas to focus on. We have increased our teams at regional level. We have appointed new regional managers in a number of regions which did not have them previously. We have aligned marketing activity internationally through the operations division in Dublin with different regions. Therefore, we have targeted specific activity at certain regions. That focus will continue. The Government has provided us with €150 million over the five years to develop new property solutions at regional level.

Again, one of the features of the economic downturn was that developers stopped developing. Private sector developers have been very slow to come back into the market, particularly at regional level. The IDA has set out a programme of building advance buildings in a number of regions and that process is now under way. We also must acquire some strategic sites over the coming period as existing strategic sites come to the end of use because they are let to multinationals. We also plan to upgrade our business and technology parks around the country, of which there are approximately 33.

All of that is the focus. There is no mistaking that it will be a huge challenge against the backdrop I set out in my opening statement, which is that the international trend is towards investments moving towards urban areas of scale. Again, I remind the members that we are competing not just within Ireland - it is not just between different urban areas, regions, towns or parishes within Ireland - but also in an international game. We are competing with 190 cities in China that have a population of over 1 million people, 36 cities in Europe with a population of over 1 million as well as 50 metropolitan areas in the US with over 1 million people. They are all potential targets for the type of investment we are chasing. That is the reason our approach is a regional one, where we can show scale by aggregating up regions rather than at a lower level.