Mr. Barry O'Leary:

I shall put the role of IDA Ireland in context of the national economy. Foreign direct investment plays a more important role in this economy than in any other European Union country. We have a portfolio of approximately 1,050 companies that we have attracted to Ireland over the years. They have a strong impact, with direct and indirect employment of 270,000 people and exports of €122 billion in goods and services. That accounts for more than 80% of all exports. They spend approximately €19 billion in the economy, of which €7.3 billion is by way of payroll. They are also the largest payers of corporation tax, with almost 70% of all corporation tax, as well as almost 70% of business expenditure on research and development, coming from multinationals.

IDA Ireland is global by nature. We have to travel the world to identify companies and convince them to come to Ireland. The primary market, or the one that is most productive in terms of foreign direct investment, is the United States where we have six offices. We have three offices in Europe but in the so-called emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil we have expanded in the last six years from two offices to 11 across a variety of countries and locations. As part of our strategy, we aim for an exceptionally high market share in the sectors on which we concentrate. In other words, if we are going after a sector, we want to be sure we have the environment that would attract the leading companies. Areas of particular strength in Ireland include information technology with names with which members will be familiar such as IBM, HP, Microsoft, Intel and EMC. In the pharmaceutical sector we have nine of the top ten companies in the world, with multiple locations in Ireland. These include Pfizer, Merck and Novartis. In respect of medical devices, we have 17 of the top 25 global players, including Abbot, Covidien and Johnston and Johnson. In the international financial services sector we have 50% of the leading institutions. Citibank, BNY Mellon and State Street are the key players in this regard. In the somewhat newer area of digital and social media we have the top ten companies, including Google, eBay and PayPal. We target development and manufacturing, research and development and global service in these sectors.

In 2012 the multinationals created 12,772 new jobs which resulted in 6,570 net jobs in IDA Ireland's portfolio. It was the largest increase in net job numbers in more than a decade, as well as the lowest number of job losses. Our key wins in 2012 included Allergan which will employ 200 people and invest €250 million in its facility in Westport; eBay; PayPal which will employ 1,400 people in Dundalk; Nypro's creation of 200 jobs in Waterford; Fidelity's 200 jobs in Galway and Dublin; SAP in Dublin and Galway; Northern Trust which will employ 400 people in Limerick; Abbot in Sligo; Eli Lily in Cork; and Cisco in Galway.

In the past two and a half years we have been targeting a sector in which we were previously not very active, namely, the emerging companies concentrated in the New York area and Silicon Valley in San Francisco. These are young companies which have gone through one round or two rounds of venture capital funding and are the future Googles or Facebooks. Since we started that programme we have attracted 55 of these companies. We are active with the large multinationals, mid-size companies and, increasingly, high growth companies in the technology sector.

We have observed increasing competition in the last year or two not only from emerging economies but also some of the most established economies in the world. The United Kingdom and the Netherlands have made significant changes to their offerings and places such as Luxembourg, Singapore, Switzerland and the eastern states of the United States have also come up with attractive packages that include corporate tax offerings.

A large proportion of IDA Ireland's budget is spent on what we describe as the transformation of the existing client base. We want to make sure the world leaders we have attracted to Ireland continue to invest and transform here. We offer a wide range of supports, including support for technology uplift, skills uplift, process improvements, research and development and energy efficiency in order to drive efficiency and place these corporations higher in their corporate world and attract new investment to Ireland. It is fair to say Ireland's value proposition - in other words, what makes Ireland attractive to multinationals - is constantly being enhanced. There is a constant task in maintaining the most important elements such as the talent base, our strong track record in attracting companies and getting them to reinvest in Ireland, the corporation tax offering and our technology capabilities. Other areas are also important. If, for example, we are trying to attract a pharmaceutical investment that could amount to €250 million to €500 million, we must be able to locate sites of 50 to 100 acres with access to 2 million gallons of water and 10 MW of power.

I thank my colleagues in IDA Ireland for their enormous commitment, dedication and flexibility in working long hours to secure foreign direct investment for Ireland. I have often referred to the importance of team Ireland in winning foreign direct investment. We have worked closely with the Taoiseach and the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and other Ministers in a wide range of Departments and State agencies to achieve substantial FDI benefits for Ireland.

This meeting is reviewing our accounts for 2012, but in regard to our outlook, the strong flow of foreign direct investment has continued in 2013. A number of leading companies have announced investments in new activities or the expansion of existing operations. However, we face a challenge in that the majority of the foreign direct investment we attract to Ireland is focused on supplying markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. These markets remain flat, but we are hopeful the European market will improve. Our efforts are firmly focused on generating a pipeline and converting it. At any one time we need in excess of 100 investments in play around the world, for which other countries will, of course, be competing.