Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)
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Question 318: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of IDA-supported jobs which were lost in County Kerry in each of the years from 2000 to 2004 inclusive; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28284/05]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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IDA Ireland is the agency with statutory responsibility for the marketing of Ireland, including its regions and areas, to overseas investors for foreign direct investment, FDI. The following tabular statement sets out the jobs lost in IDA supported companies in Kerry for each of the years between 2000 and 2004. Job creation and job losses are a feature of economic development in all countries as various sectors expand and contract in response to market demand for goods and services, competitive forces, restructuring and technological change.

The FDI operating environment has changed in recent years, with investors no longer seeing Ireland as a prime location for what might be called low cost, low skill, basic manufacturing and services type activities. Consequently, the primary requirement now is for FDI that is higher value-added, requiring high skill levels, and FDI that is, as far as possible, innovation rather than production orientated and that links to an increasingly sophisticated business environment.

Only economic activities with these characteristics can justify high wage levels and so allow Ireland to maintain economic growth in the absence of the strong labour surplus this country had up until recently. This higher-level FDI will contribute more to growth by increasing value-added and integrate better into the host economy because of its greater complexity.

IDA Ireland has informed me that it is actively seeking to win new projects for Kerry in more advanced, higher value activities, in both manufacturing and services. In addition to its ongoing marketing of the county to potential new investors it is also actively seeking to facilitate a progression in the sophistication and breadth of its existing clients' Irish operations. This means not only increasing value-added in client manufacturing operations, but also adding corporate level innovation, such as research and development, and service, logistics and supply chain management functions alongside manufacturing.

The objective is to create more rounded and strategically important operations within the overall corporation, which are better embedded and more suited to the competitive characteristics of the Irish economy in the medium to long term. I am pleased that IDA Ireland is making some progress in this regard with two expansion projects announced in April 2004 for Killarney and a third for Kenmare announced in November 2004. At the end of 2004, the latest year for which figures are available, there were 2,022 people in permanent employment in 21 IDA supported companies in County Kerry.

The following table shows the number of jobs lost in IDA supported companies in Kerry in each of the years from 2000 to 2004, inclusive: