Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 21 February 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

IDA Ireland: Chairperson Designate

Photo of Louise O'ReillyLouise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is it, yes. It has moved on and it moves very quickly. The Department of Finance recently cited the four Ds, namely, demographics, decarbonisation, digitisation and deglobalisation, which just trips off the tongue, as key trends that are likely to be transformative for our economy over the next decade. The belief among some business stakeholders is that high-value, emerging technologies in a variety of areas, like renewables, AI, quantum computing and ultra-personalised medicine, are going to be massive areas of opportunity. Securing investment in these areas will be absolutely crucial in securing the next generation of FDI. How is the IDA equipped to handle this next generation of FDI? I ask this because Mr. O'Rourke himself said an organisation is really only as good as its last season. The IDA's last season was decent. What is it doing to build for the next one and specifically to secure growth in those areas? We would nearly class this as the type of technology that just did not exist when we were in school.

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