Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 140: To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the steps he has taken to promote job retention and to counteract the tendency of companies to off-shore jobs from Ireland to countries such as Egypt and India. [19354/11]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Many of the recent jobs losses which have occurred are as a result of the restructuring process which has been going on in industry in Ireland and around the world whereby on the one hand, overall job numbers in individual companies have been reduced at plants around the world in response to the recession in 2007/2008, and on the other hand, activities (and hence jobs) at the lower end of the value added scale are being phased out as these activities would become uneconomic in particular locations.

In Ireland, such job losses are now at a much lower level than in 2009 and in 2010 there was a net increase in jobs in IDA client companies. Reductions in costs across the economy including labour costs, energy, property and accommodation are having a positive impact and further reductions in costs will be a key contributor to further competitiveness gains. Productivity enhancement through research and innovation also gives Ireland a competitive advantage against lower cost economies.

In March 2010, IDA published "Horizon 2020", its strategy for the forthcoming decade, Horizon 2020 sets out IDA's targets for the five-year period to 2014 as well as the agency's view of how the environment in which we operate will change over the next decade and the opportunities for FDI created by global trends. The investment targets set out in this strategy include the creation of 105,000 new jobs in Ireland from the period 2010-2014.

IDA's strategy includes winning as many new jobs as possible each year and giving equal priority to maintaining existing jobs. The agency recognises that jobs losses occur every year for a variety of reasons including changing competitiveness, competition from sister sites, product and technology lifecycles or global location rationalisation as a result of mergers and acquisitions.

To address the need to maintain jobs in Ireland, IDA is actively encouraging its existing clients to strongly engage in transformation initiatives, and is assisting them in programmes to:

Ø Improve company-wide competitiveness;

Ø Enhance use of new technologies;

Ø Grow the skills of the business;

Ø Engage in Research, Development and Innovation;

Ø Develop new business processes; and

Ø Make company operations more energy efficient.

There is a requirement to have a constant agenda to support clients to improve and invest to transform their Irish operations to ensure jobs can be maintained and losses minimised. I have every confidence that the combined influence of Ireland's increased competitiveness in business costs, commitment to our 12.5% corporate tax rate, transformation of agency client operations and activities, national infrastructure development, the Government's investment strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation and development of growth markets will continue to attract and increase the level of inward investment and industrial jobs in Ireland.