Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 163: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the action he has taken or proposes to take to combat job relocation to low cost economies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24115/06]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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As we have seen over the past 15 years, long term, sustainable economic growth and expansion in employment depends on a competitive and adaptable economy. The effects of globalisation are being felt in even the smallest markets and global competition will both intensify and extend its reach well into the foreseeable future. For a long time this Government has recognised the inevitable changes taking place across world markets for both trade and investment. Enterprise policies that equip companies with the ability to better compete in world markets, capture the opportunities from globalisation and build competitive advantage in innovation and knowledge have been central to policy development and the impact is tangible.

While some economic activity has moved to lower cost locations, for the most part this has been confined to lower value added activities where we no longer have a competitive advantage. Meanwhile employment creation and investment has developed in areas of product and service sophistication and we have won considerable new foreign investment in high technology sectors, research activities and from global companies selecting Ireland as a location for their European headquarters. For example, last year IDA Ireland supported some 50 research and development (R&D) projects involving business investment of over €275 million. This was a record both in number and value.

At the same time Enterprise Ireland's strategy to help transform its client base is making solid progress. Its support to Irish companies helped them increase exports last year by over 7% and to Asia in particular by almost 15%. Enterprise Ireland's mandate to prioritise R&D supports helped 515 of its clients invest over €100,000 each in meaningful R&D in 2005, while 33 companies were involved in significant R&D, i.e. involving an investment over €2 million.

This commitment of both resources and policy development is reflected in Ireland's employment performance. According to the CSO, employment increased by an annualised 89,800 to February 2006, or by 4.7%. This was the largest growth in employment Ireland has seen since 2000 and compares very favourably to the eurozone average of 1%.

Maintaining the capacity of the economy to consistently generate new employment opportunities requiring higher skills and providing higher rewards is a key policy of this Government. Our policies have a strong competitiveness focus and we are succeeding. Recent research by the IMD World Competitiveness Scoreboard ranked us as the world's 11th most competitive economy, up one place on last year's position.

Many challenges remain and while Ireland has traditionally underperformed in research and development, this Government is leading change with the announcement this week of the Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation. This Strategy is a key element of investment in the next National Development Plan and will oversee investment of €3.8 billion by the public and private sector — investment that will help secure the future competitiveness of the economy.