Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The challenge facing IDA Ireland is to continue winning top quality investment for Ireland in a difficult and competitive global environment. It also seeks to secure a required spread of investment across the regions. Investors usually come with quite clearly specified requirements and the IDA offers regional locations that meet those requirements in the choices for scheduled visits. It vigorously markets the gateway locations within each region and highlights the opportunities provided by hub locations that are within commuting distances of those gateways. With continuing enhancement and improvements in physical and digital infrastructure, a foreign direct investment, FDI, project secured for one gateway can have a positive impact on hubs, other gateways and their surrounding areas. However, it must be acknowledged that the decision on where a client company will locate a new FDI investment is made by the senior managers of the companies involved.

From 2008 to 2010, more than 16,000 net jobs were lost in IDA companies. Since the Government entered office, more than 12,500 net new jobs have been created. There have also been notable regional successes, including 1,500 jobs in PayPal and eBay in Dundalk, 200 jobs in Allergan in Westport, 200 jobs in Nypro in Waterford and 400 jobs in Northern Trust in Limerick.

The existing base of multinational companies in a region represents a substantial opportunity. Approximately 70% of all FDI investments won by the IDA are from the existing client base. In addition, success in a sector gives confidence to other investors of the region's capacity to meet their needs. The IDA seeks to develop sectoral clusters within regions.

ConnectIreland is a new initiative for promoting FDI. It has been successful in accessing new streams of investment, many to regional locations. For example, Mafic announced 70 jobs in Kells, Magni announced 50 new manufacturing jobs in Portarlington, with other jobs announcements in Galway and Longford. A key to its success is the vigorous involvement of the individuals and communities in specific regions to promote this opportunity and I encourage local authorities to build such networks.

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I am determined to ensure that Ireland can continue to compete globally for foreign direct investment. In winning such investments, however, I am mindful of the need to address the concerns that have been expressed to me by Deputies on all sides of the House about the relatively low level of site visits to certain regional locations. I have accordingly requested IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland to work with my Department so that we can explore what further initiatives we can take to ensure a better approach to enterprise development in regional locations. This exercise will complement the in-depth analysis of our FDI strategy that is being undertaken. This analysis will take account of factors such as key trends emerging in FDI best practice internationally, Ireland's strengths in attracting FDI and changes to the EU's state aid rules that will be introduced in 2014. These factors will inform the formulation of an appropriate FDI strategy for the period post 2014.

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