Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 237: To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the extent to which he has further examined precise reasons for the relocation of various enterprises from this to other European or further afield jurisdictions in both the manufacturing and service sectors; the extent to which such relocation has been attributed to specific causes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36334/11]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Recent jobs losses which have occurred in the FDI sector in Ireland are largely the result of the continuing restructuring process that is ongoing in Ireland and other developed economies driven by competitive pressures and technological change. This results in jobs at the lower end of the value added scale being either phased out completely or relocated to lower cost locations. Some of the job losses are due to cyclical factors and will recover. An analysis of job losses in companies in the IDA portfolio that closed over the period 2005 -2010 shows that the majority of closures were in areas such as Metals and Engineering, Print and Packaging, Textiles and Plastics & Rubber. The remainder of closures were spread across more vulnerable parts of sub sectors such as ICT, Services, and Chemicals that are growing overall.

Job losses occur for a variety of reasons including changing competitiveness, competition from sister sites, product and technology lifecycles, global location rationalisation as a result of mergers and acquisitions, or an amalgam of these factors. In the majority of the cases involving relocation, the shift is to lower cost emerging economies with a smaller number of cases relocating to other developed country locations, largely in Eastern Europe.

IDA's strategy (Horizon 2020) is focussed on winning as many new jobs as possible each year and giving equal priority to maintaining existing jobs. To address the need to maintain jobs in Ireland, IDA is encouraging its client companies 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.

Ø Make company operations more energy efficient.

There is a requirement for IDA 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.