Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 19 September 2013

Public Accounts Committee

Annual Report and Accounts 2012: Discussion with IDA Ireland

11:40 am

Mr. Barry O'Leary:

There are a number of initiatives we would like to undertake and there are six areas into which we would put resources. These are areas that we strongly believe in but right now we do not actually have additional resources. For instance, the emerging business area that we spoke about is the most obvious and the one where we get the quickest return on investment. There are others such areas, including the transformation agenda with the big clients we have here to make sure they re-invest. If one looks at the corporate level, with some of the big companies we might have to talk to 30 people at any given time. There is a constant battle to win reinvestment. Competition for foreign direct investment is intense and has become even more so since the European market, in particular, has flattened out. More companies are turning to FDI for whatever growth there is.