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

In 2013, for the first time in many years, every region experienced employment expansion. It is noteworthy that this included the south east and Border, midlands and west regions.

This year, 2014, is the fifth and final year in IDA Ireland's Horizon 2020 strategy, which has been in place since 2010. One of the high level targets of the strategy was that 50% of all investment would be located outside of Dublin and Cork. Although IDA Ireland did not achieve this target, there were nevertheless a number of substantial investments in regional locations during the period. Between 2010 and 2013, some 35% of all foreign direct investment, FDI, announcements related to locations outside of Dublin and Cork, while 40% of all IDA Ireland sponsored site visits by potential investors were to locations outside of Dublin and Cork. Overall, 72,500 people or roughly 44% of the total employment in IDA Ireland's base of companies, including those that were former clients of Shannon Development, are located outside of Dublin and Cork.

I am determined to optimise the potential contribution of foreign direct investment to regional economic development as part of a cohesive regional strategy. To this end, I was pleased to secure agreement on new European Union state aid rules, under which we have secured regional aid status for the south east, County Kerry and the Border, midlands and west region and the capacity to provide aid to large enterprises in these areas. In addition, Kells, Athy and Arklow have been designated under the new regional aid map.

Work is now nearing completion on a new foreign direct investment policy statement, as committed to in the Action Plan for Jobs 2014. This follows an in-depth analysis by Forfás of Ireland’s foreign direct investment strategy in light of a changing global environment to take account of factors such as key trends emerging in FDI best practice internationally, Ireland's strengths in attracting FDI and the new state aid rules, which came into effect on 1 July 2014.

In addition, the 2014 Action Plan for Jobs includes a commitment to develop a framework for a regional enterprise strategy to better integrate the plans of the enterprise development agencies and enlist the support of regional stakeholders in supporting the development of the competitive strengths and opportunities of the regions. My intention is that the framework will be rolled out on a progressive basis, starting with one or two regions and focusing, in particular, on co-ordinating the efforts of the agencies under the remit of my Department, namely, Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and the new local enterprise offices. The overarching objective of the framework is to ensure the agencies work together on a common strategy to support their client companies and work with other key stakeholders to maximise the potential for job creation in the regions. My Department is developing this framework in collaboration with Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and Forfás. This policy framework will guide the new chief executive of the IDA as the agency develops its new strategy from 2015 onwards.

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