Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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9. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of new jobs created by the Industrial Development Agency in County Donegal in 2013; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50564/13]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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This question is more specific in terms of the figures for County Donegal, in particular in regard to the IDA. Will the Minister give details of the number of new jobs created by the IDA in County Donegal in 2013?

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Forfás annual employment survey reports on job gains and losses in companies supported by the industrial development agencies. Data are compiled on an annualised basis and is aggregated at county level. Figures for 2013 will not be available until the end of the year. In the two-year period, 2010 to 2012, inclusive, the total employment numbers in IDA Ireland client companies in Donegal increased from 1,633 in 2010 to 2,228 in 2012, an increase of more than 25%. Increasing the FDI employment level over the period against the current global economic climate reflects positively on the importance and resilience of IDA Ireland's client companies in Donegal.

In 2013, the IDA has had a good flow of site visits to the county by prospective investors. There are 14 IDA Ireland-supported companies in Donegal employing 2,228 people in full-time and part-time employment in software development, systems development and medical technology. Companies, such as Pramerica and UnitedHealth - PacifiCare - which have located in County Donegal are continuously growing and recruiting. Current full-time employment for the three largest employers in Letterkenny, namely Pramerica, UnitedHealth - PacifiCare - and Zeus is 1,495 people.

County Donegal's industry base is transforming and it is a successful location for high-end manufacturing, mainly to companies in the medical technologies sector. The IDA actively engages with its existing base of companies in Donegal, highlighting the ongoing importance of upskilling and reskilling and the need to add high value activities in order to ensure sustainability and ongoing development.

Another focus for the IDA in County Donegal is the designated linked gateway of Letterkenny-Derry. This focus involves developing stronger economic links with Invest Northern Ireland, which includes initiatives like the north west business and technology zone, NWBTZ. This zone is aimed at promoting the linked gateway of Letterkenny-Derry in line with the Northern Ireland regional development strategy 2025.

Northern Ireland Science Park's plans to establish a satellite campus in the linked Letterkenny-Derry gateway at Letterkenny Institute of Technology CoLab and Fort George in Derry is a further positive development and will assist in the marketing of the location.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

Other positive developments include the delivery of project Kelvin to Letterkenny. Project Kelvin is a joint initiative between the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation in Northern Ireland to supply a direct international telecoms connectivity project under the INTERREG IV programme 2007-2013. The project provides a direct international telecoms link from the north west of Ireland to North America via an onshore link to the existing transatlantic submarine telecoms cable. This service enables Letterkenny to have access to the same international services as found in major cities worldwide. Prices are commercially attractive and are benchmarked against international locations with 20% reductions. The pricing mechanism will remain in place until 2018.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the fact we are seeing an increase in the number of jobs created at national level. The 58,000 jobs created in the past year are very welcome. That is the way we all want to see our country move. We want to see more people getting back to work but since 2011, we have seen unemployment grow in the Border region. The figures out yesterday show that in the Border region, unemployment has gone from 14.6% to 15.2%.

In regard to the jobs created last year, is the Minister in a position to give a breakdown of how many of them were in County Donegal? The Minister indicated in his reply that the jobs created in County Donegal were in existing IDA companies. That shows the potential of County Donegal and of companies which have set up there to grow. However, under this Government the story of new IDA companies coming to County Donegal has been very poor. We are not getting our share of the new investments. In regard to new investments, what has been the performance of the Government since it took office?

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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As I said, IDA and Enterprise Ireland numbers are collected by way of a survey of those companies and they will not be available until later in the year. The survey results from the CSO, which has nothing to do with my Department but which were published yesterday, cover groups of counties. It does not break it down by county. However, the Border region, which includes County Donegal, saw an increase of 9,500 people at work, which is a considerable reversal of previous trends. In the previous 12 months, figures showed a decline of more than 12,000. The trend in the Border region has been very significantly turned around in the past 12 months.

The IDA seeks to continuously develop new and existing business. Approximately 70% of all IDA projects come from expansions. The Letterkenny Institute of Technology has been particularly successful in building an interconnection with those companies I mentioned, namely, Pramerica, UnitedHealth and Zeus, and they have been continually expanding, which is encouraging.

There has also been an encouraging flow of site visits which is the lead indicator of new projects coming to County Donegal. It is an area which has considerable potential and I can assure the Deputy that we will continue to work on it. It has been helped by project Kelvin which, effectively, gives not only competitive but international telecom links which are as good as anywhere in Ireland.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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The encouraging stream of site visits by the IDA to the county, to which the Minister referred, was a total of one in 2012. There have been four visits this year. Unfortunately, under his leadership, there have been very few site visits and little new investment in the county. The Minister pointed out that companies there continue to expand but those companies are already there. We need to get our share new investment. The Government committed to 50% of that being outside the Dublin and Cork areas but we are not seeing it in our county.

The one key thing the Minister has done since coming to office is that the Letterkenny IDA office, which used to be the hub for the north west in terms of attracting new investments, has been moved from there, which has been detrimental. Will the Minister up the performance? We need to see a fair share of new investments coming to the county as well as depending on those 14 IDA companies to expand their job numbers.

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy was a member of the party which was in government previously. We have secured a 25% increase in the number of people working in IDA companies in the past two years. That contrasts with the situation under the previous regime of a reduction of approximately 33%. This is a strong performance and the Deputy needs to recognise that. I do not think he should be bad-mouthing the efforts of the IDA or the county because the county is doing well and it has a strong infrastructure which we vigorously promote. The Deputy needs to recognise that this is a successful performance by the IDA-----

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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The county has the highest unemployment rate in the country. The county is not doing well.

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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-----in developing companies. Much work is being done and more work will be put into this but the progress must be acknowledged.