Tony McCormack (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I want to speak about Ireland's position as a leading destination for foreign direct investment and, more importantly, our competitiveness. Over the past decades Ireland has built a strong reputation as an attractive location for multinational companies. However, in a rapidly changing global economy staying competitive requires continuous work, not only in attracting new investment but also in maintaining companies that are already here.

Ireland's success in attracting foreign direct investment is no accident. Our economy offers a unique combination of factors to make us an appealing choice for multinational companies. IDA Ireland is a big part of this success and is a leader in the world at what it does. Attracting new investment is important but keeping the companies already here is just as critical.

Recently, in my constituency of Offaly we lost jobs. Approximately 300 jobs were lost in Cardinal Health, a company that was in Tullamore for more than 40 years. Many of the employees had been there for 20 or 30 years or more. The company contributed greatly to the economy of Offaly over its lifetime. More recently, 40 more jobs went at Nelipak Healthcare in Clara, another company that provided great employment in our county for many years. My information is that in both cases the jobs went elsewhere. In the case of Cardinal Health in Tullamore, which was a very profitable arm of the company I might add, one of the three lines it manufactured was discontinued, the second went to Costa Rica and the other went to Mexico. It looks as though this decision was made by an accountant in United States because the cost of business doing here is too high. In the case of Nelipak Healthcare the jobs went outside of Ireland also.

Every one of these jobs represents a family and a livelihood. I wish those people the best of luck in their endeavours to gain new employment. We need to look after these people by upskilling or reskilling them. When I speak to similar companies they tell me about the cost of employing somebody in Ireland. They tell me about the red tape involved in doing business here, which is time consuming and costly. Rates are higher, the price of utilities is higher and housing for employees is a big problem. We have so much going for us with our great educated workforce, a stable Government, a stable business environment and a keen corporation tax of 15%, while also being an English-speaking country with access to European markets. All of this is good but we need to be careful. We do not need to price ourselves out of the market. We seem to be slipping down the competitiveness table when it comes to attracting new companies here. We must not let this happen. We must reverse this slide and start climbing up the table again.

I cannot mention foreign direct investment companies alone. We need to look at our small and medium sized indigenous businesses also, and make it easier for them to do business here. We need to take a serious look at how we will bring our town centres back to life and attract retail stores back to our high streets. This will take a lot of thinking outside the box and putting in place the right supports to help our town centres thrive and not just survive. What are we doing to maintain our competitiveness? How are we working to improve it? What supports are available for the workers of these two companies, considering some of them are in the autumn of their working careers?

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I will take this matter on behalf of the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Peter Burke. I thank Deputy McCormack for raising this important matter. The Minister, Deputy Burke, and I share his deep concern for those staff and their families in County Offaly who are impacted by the decisions of the companies.

In January 2025 , Nelipak Healthcare of Clara, County Offaly, announced that it had undertaken an analysis of sales forecasts and operational needs in the UK and Ireland, and a decision was made to recommend up to 40 redundancies. This reorganisation is a post-Covid-19 correction following a return to pre-Covid volumes and a need to reduce budgets. Staff were notified by the company of its decision, and a formal collective redundancy process is under way, with the first redundancies expected to take place at the end of February 2025. Nelipak Healthcare operates a second Irish facility in my home county of Galway, which is not affected by this decision.

This is very disappointing news for Clara, where this facility has provided valuable employment for 30 years. Our sympathies are with those effected by this announcement in what is a very difficult time for them all. In response, the Government is on hand to support those workers. Our agencies will work to support the employees affected in the period ahead as they pursue alternative employment. This will include sharing the skills profiles of impacted employees with companies that may be hiring, be that with multinationals in IDA client bases or indigenous companies through Enterprise Ireland. In parallel, the IDA continues to engage with Nelipak Healthcare senior management to assist the company, which has indicated that it is committed to supporting affected employees. The IDA will also provide introductions to companies that are recruiting locally and support services for staff affected.

As a country we are close to full employment. The economy is well diversified, with hundreds of thousands of people employed in indigenous SMEs, pharmaceuticals, agrifood, medtech and financial services. As the Deputy said, however, we cannot be complacent. We have to watch our costs. Ensuring a strong continued pipeline of foreign direct investment is a core objective of this Government and to that end, Ireland’s proposition for foreign direct investment remains competitive. This is demonstrated by the IDA’s results for 2024, which show that Ireland secured 234 investment wins, delivering a record level of research and development investment as IDA clients committed €1.9 billion across 64 investments. These investments are projected to create 13,500 jobs over coming years. The results also show strong balanced regional development throughout 2024 with 59% of the FDI investments in locations outside of Dublin. As a person who comes from rural Ireland and with the Deputy coming from the midlands, it is important that we have regional investment and regional balance in our development.

Tony McCormack (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. We are all very happy with the endeavours of the IDA. As I said in my question, the IDA is a world leader in what it does in attracting foreign direct investment into Ireland. In fact, it is so good that it is copied by many other countries around the place. We talk about the 50% of companies that the IDA will endeavour to locate outside of the Dublin region. Unfortunately, this was the case in the previous plan and the plan previous to that and again, unfortunately, we have not had 50% of the companies located outside the Dublin area. I would like to impose on the Minister of State to talk to the IDA and ensure that the 50% is upheld and that we get balanced growth right across the country. We already know that the infrastructure here in Dublin is creaking and needs updating whereas down the country we have infrastructure that is well able to take care of the foreign direct investment companies that need to locate there.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

It is 59%, not 50%-----

Tony McCormack (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

It is 59%, sorry.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

-----which is closer to two thirds than half. I do agree with the Deputy, though. We need to have more of it, and we need to see it on the ground.

Ireland continues to be seen as a location of choice for new investors as well as long-established companies that choose to further invest in substantial expansions of their operations here. That is borne out in the IDA report from last year. In 2024, direct employment in IDA client companies stood at more than 300,000 people nationally for the third year in a row despite some downsizing in the tech sector.

Ireland still offers a competitive, consistent and transparent corporate tax regime, good access and connectivity and an excellent return on investment as well as being an attractive environment where people can live and work. The Government is fully aware of the competitiveness challenge the country faces as it competes for foreign direct investment. As we are taking the necessary steps to position Ireland for the future, we will continue to place cost, planning, energy and research and development at the centre of our forward looking policymaking, all reflected in policy commitments in the new programme for Government. Just yesterday, the Minister, Deputy Peter Burke, launched the IDA's new strategy for the coming five-year period. The timing is opportune as we face into uncertain times.

Central to the IDA's new strategy is an emphasis on partnering with its existing 1,800 clients, employing more than 3,000 people across this country, to identify opportunities and safeguard and strengthen long-term investment in Ireland. The strategy also affirms the IDA's unrelenting focus on the regions. Building on the excellent performance over the previous strategy, the IDA is targeting 55% of the investments to regional locations in the next five years. As a regional representative like Deputy McCormack, we will work to make sure that is not just speak but that it is actually implemented. We will keep on that. I thank the Deputy.