Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 23 March 2023

Public Accounts Committee

2021 Financial Statements of Enterprise Ireland: Discussion

9:30 am

Mr. Leo Clancy:

We do. I mentioned earlier that 13% job growth was the highest we had in any sector. That was in the sustainability and agritech sector, which is increasingly sustainability-focused itself. That was certainly a strong statistic coming out of 2022. It shows that those sustainability-related companies are the ones that do very well. We actively target sustainability investments as well.

We are constantly looking for them. These are, first of all, companies whose business is sustainability. We love to see those because, first of all, they are good for Ireland. Second, they will have great markets because there is a lot of global focus on ESG among people who buy from them. One specific thing to mention is that we have just launched the latest call for the destructive technology innovation fund, which is a €500 million Government fund for early-stage, future-focused innovation. This year we are focusing, with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, on sustainability and built environment so we want to see calls come in for innovation in that space-----