Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Site visits represent a useful tool through which investors can be encouraged to invest in areas such as County Cork. IDA Ireland always does its utmost to ensure overseas firms consider all potential locations when visiting Ireland. It is important to remember that the final decision on where to invest always rests with the company concerned. I remind the Deputy that site visit activity does not necessarily reflect investment potential. As I told Deputy Kelleher earlier, at least 70% of all new foreign direct investment comes from existing IDA Ireland client companies. The employment situation in the south-west region, which covers counties Cork and Kerry, has been steadily improving in recent years. The south-west regional action plan for jobs, which was launched in July 2015, has been a key factor in this improvement. The plan placed a heavy focus on employment growth in key sectors such as life sciences, manufacturing and information and communications technology. Last year, IDA Ireland client companies created 2,388 gross new jobs in the south west, bringing total employment in overseas companies in the region to 35,248 people across 158 client companies.

IDA Ireland will continue to work with its clients to identify opportunities for new investment or expansion in County Cork. In doing so, it will draw the attention of investors to the county's particular strengths. These include but are not limited to its accessibility, including its ports and its airport, its existing cluster of medical technology and pharmaceutical firms and its strong track record as a home to overseas companies for many years. IDA Ireland is seeking to attract new firms to Cork while working closely with its existing clients there to help to strengthen and potentially grow their respective workforces. Regarding the specific locations mentioned by Deputy Moynihan, as data on IDA Ireland site visits are collated on a county-by-county basis, information on the number of site visits to specific locations in individual counties is not available. IDA Ireland does not release details of the specific itineraries of potential investors on grounds of client confidentiality and commercial sensitivity.

I can inform the Deputy, however, that a total of 51 site visits took place in Cork in 2017 and a further ten site visits have been undertaken in the first three months of 2018.

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