Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 1692: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation the geographic concentration of foreign direct investment in each of the past ten years; the numbers of Industrial Development Agency supported companies that have been set up in each of the past ten years; the numbers of IDA supported companies that have been set up in each of the past five years on a county basis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31939/10]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Foreign direct investment industries are located in each county in the State, and in the Shannon Free Zone. The greatest concentration of FDI industries is in Dublin.

Table 1 shows the number of foreign companies supported by IDA on a county by county basis and by Shannon Development in the Shannon Free Zone in each year of the past 10 years.

In the same 10 year period, a total of 261 IDA supported companies have been set up, while 28 FDI companies have been established in the Shannon Free Zone.

In the past 5 years a total of 106 IDA supported companies have been set up throughout the country, while 8 Shannon Development supported companies have been set up in the Zone. Table 2 shows, on a county by county basis, the number of IDA supported companies which have been set up in each year of the 5 year period 2005 to 2009.

IDA is fully committed to securing a balance in regional development and one of the targets set in the Agency's Strategy "Horizon 2020"is that in the period 2010 to 2014, 50% of new or expansion investments will be located outside of Dublin and Cork.

Frequently, competition for Foreign Direct Investment comes not from other countries but from city regions with populations in excess of one million people. Dublin is the only recognised city region in Ireland that meets this criterion. If FDI is to continue to contribute to balanced regional development the other regions of the country must be promoted as regions of scale with urban centres that provide the range of infrastructure and services that high value investment projects demand. This objective is being pursued under the National Spatial Strategy. IDA continues to vigorously promote the regions to potential investors.

Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 1693: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation the areas that have been most affected by the withdrawal of foreign direct investment in each of the past ten years, in terms of job losses and by county; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31940/10]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The Forfás Annual Employment Survey reports on job gains and losses in companies that are supported by the industrial development agencies. Data is compiled on an annualised basis and is aggregated at county level. The number of jobs lost in IDA supported companies, on a county by county basis, in each of the past 10 years is set out in the attached tabular statement.

Each year an average of 7-8% of jobs within the IDA portfolio are lost as part of the normal business lifecycle. The reasons for this include competitiveness, market downturn, global economic trends and business model re-structuring, particularly as a result of merger and acquisition activity. However in 2009, in addition to the normal level of job losses, many IDA client companies announced significant reductions in their global workforces. Ireland was not immune to these changes with net employment within IDA supported companies falling by 13,400 or c.10% from the previous year. In excess of 3,500 of these job losses resulted from two high profile companies which included 1,900 losses in Dell, Limerick and approximately 1,300 at SR Technics in Dublin. It is also noteworthy that 82% of job losses were as a result of downsizing, not closures. Maintaining a large number of existing multinationals here will help position Ireland as a competitive location when the global economy recovers from 2010 onwards.

While it is clear that we are operating in a very difficult economic environment, there are still investment opportunities in global markets and IDA will continue to compete vigorously for projects for Ireland. Indeed IDA's performance for the first half of 2010 has been very encouraging and the Agency is on track to achieve ambitious Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) targets set out for 2010. Up to mid July 2010, IDA already secure 63 new investments, of which 20 were from companies setting up operations in Ireland for the first time, 22 were expansion investments from existing client companies and 21 of the investments were in Research and Development. A number of key trends are driving the current success in FDI in Ireland including the growth in the US technology sector, growing trends in Cleantech, an improvement in Ireland's competitiveness, currency movements and an overall global recovery in FDI.

Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 1694: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation the figures for foreign direct investment here for each of the past ten years; the figures for investments won and lost by the Industrial Development Agency in this ten year period; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31941/10]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Foreign direct investment has been a major contributor to Ireland's development in the past 50 years. Nearly a quarter of a million quality Irish jobs exist today because of our long term commitment to make Ireland a location of choice for multinational companies. At present there are 980 IDA supported multinational companies established here. These companies account for 70% of total exports (€110bn) and are responsible for €19.1bn in direct expenditure within the Irish economy and account for 55% of the total corporate tax take.

Over the past 10 years since 2000, the number of foreign direct investments approved annually has risen from 96 in 2000 to an all time high of 130 in 2008. In 2009, that figure dropped back to 125, a drop of 4%, whereas FDI globally dropped by 30%. Research, Development and Innovation plays a significant role in building Ireland's "Smart Economy". RDI projects now account for almost 50% of all FDI investments. In the past 3 years alone (2007 to 2009), IDA has secured investments with total future capital of €5 billion plus €1.2bn in R&D.

Table 1 sets out the number of foreign investments secured annually in each of the years 2000 to 2009.

Every year an average of 7-8% of jobs within the IDA portfolio are lost as part of the normal business lifecycle. The reasons for this include competitiveness, market downturn, global economic trends and business model re-structuring, particularly as a result of merger and acquisition activity. In the 10 year period 2000 to 2009 a total of 462 IDA supported companies closed with resulting job losses.

Table 2 shows the number of closures together with the subsequent job losses in each year 2000 to 2009.