Dáil debates

Thursday, 28 January 2010

Mid-West Task Force: Statements

 

11:00 am

Photo of Mary CoughlanMary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

It continues to focus on attracting high technology investment to the mid west. Intel announced a €50 million investment in research and development in the Shannon Development free zone in 2009, a major vote of confidence in the region. IDA has 52 client companies in the mid-west region employing more than 8,000 people on a full or part-time basis. While 2009 was been a difficult year for these companies, we continue to work with them to protect and strengthen their operations in the region and to assist them in broadening and deepening the range of functions carried out there.

Foreign direct investments take some time to be put in place. In this regard a number of companies who announced investments in 2008 and in 2009 are currently recruiting. These include Vistakon, Channel Advisor, ON Semi, Cook Medical and DTS in Limerick, Microsemi in Ennis, and Intel in Shannon. Enterprise Ireland's client employment complement in the mid-west region in 2009 was more than 9,100. Nevertheless, it is clear that the economic downturn is resulting in a negative effect on employment creation. The effect on job retention, particularly in certain sectors such as construction and related industries, has been significant, with a net decrease of numbers employed in El companies. A key driver of employment growth in the region will be the presence of innovative start-up companies. Five such high potential start-ups were established in the mid west in 2009, with Enterprise Ireland's support.

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