John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 180: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the specific steps being taken by the IDA Ireland to promote additional industry in Waterford City and county. [32384/06]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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IDA Ireland is the agency with statutory responsibility for the attraction of foreign direct investment (FDI) to Ireland and its regions. The marketing of individual areas, including Waterford, for new or expansion FDI investments and jobs is a day-to-day operational matter for the Agency. While I may give general policy directives to the Agency, I am precluded under the Acts from giving directives regarding individual undertakings or from giving preference to one area over others.

As the Gateway location for the South-East Region, IDA Ireland is seeking to develop Waterford City as a first-class location for overseas investment and is working closely with a wide range of local bodies to develop the necessary infrastructure, skills availability and support services capable of attracting investment into Waterford and the entire region.

As part of this strategy, IDA Ireland aims to provide world class property solutions of scale in the Waterford City area and to develop property solutions in the county town of Dungarvan, with appropriate supporting infrastructure in both cases. Recent years have seen the development of the 70 acre Waterford Business and Technology Park, the Dungarvan Business Park as well as the large scale 136 acre Greenfield site in Belview, which is specifically targeted for larger scale utility intensive overseas investments. A further 50 acre site adjacent to the Genzyme facility on the Kilmeaden road in Waterford City is also available for Greenfield investment.

In parallel with developments on the property solutions side, IDA Ireland continues to work closely with third level educational institutes in the region so that the skill sets necessary to attract high value-added employment to the county are being developed. The Agency is of the view that Waterford Institute of Technology will play an ever-increasing role in the attraction and maintenance of overseas companies in the county. In addition, IDA maintains a close relationship with FÁS so that the requirements of industry, particularly in the area of training and upskilling, are being met.

At present there are thirty IDA Ireland supported companies in Waterford, employing approximately 5,800 people and the Agency is also actively engaged with the existing IDA client base in Co. Waterford to encourage their transition to higher value activities and their increased embeddedness in the area.

Waterford has a long and strong track record as a centre of manufacturing expertise. The county has a key strength in engineering, in both indigenous and overseas sectors. In more recent years however, these have been giving way to newer, more advanced manufacturing. In marketing Co. Waterford for new foreign direct investment, IDA Ireland is focussed on attracting overseas companies in the services and knowledge based industries e.g. Life Sciences, ICT, International Services and High Technology Engineering.