Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 283: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment her views on whether the commitment of 50% of greenfield projects in the BMW region should be re-affirmed (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19272/08]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, 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 for new or expansion FDI investments and jobs is a day-to-day operational matter for the Agency. For the period 2000 to 2006 IDA Ireland had set itself a high-level performance target for the Objective 1 (BMW) Area, which committed the Agency to work to deliver a target of 50% of all new Greenfield jobs to be located in the Objective 1 Area. Despite difficult global trading conditions, substantial progress was achieved against this target and in that period 36% of all new Greenfield jobs were located in the area. At the end of 2007, the latest date for which figures are available, there were 26,430 people employed in IDA supported companies in the BMW Region, which represents almost 20% of all IDA supported employment in the country.

The knowledge intensive FDI for which Ireland now competes favours locations in or near centres of urban scale, where it has access to the concentrations of infrastructure, skills and services it needs. Accordingly, IDA Ireland has aligned its regional strategy with the National Spatial Strategy and is focused on delivering investments to the Gateway and Hub locations. In this regard the target now for IDA Ireland is to locate 60% of new investments outside of the Greater Dublin Area. The strategy in place to achieve this involves matching investor requirements with the competencies, infrastructure and critical mass of the Gateway and Hub location. The key sectors of focus for IDA are Life Sciences, Information and Communications Technologies and high value Services activities. In this connection, it must be remembered that, under the revised EU Regional Aid Guidelines, the BMW and South East Regions are the only areas where regional aid is available up to 2013.

I am satisfied that the work of the Agency on the ground, together with the continued roll out of the National Development Plan will continue to bear fruit in terms of investment and job creation for the people of the BMW Region.