Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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Question 362: To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will provide on a county basis a breakdown of the number of new enterprises established under the auspices of the Industrial Development Authority since 2006. [20411/12]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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In the period 2006 – 2011 there have been 156 new enterprises established in this country under the auspices of IDA Ireland providing almost 5,000 new jobs. This figure is broken down on a county by county, year by year basis in the tabular statement below.

IDA Ireland is the agency charged with the attraction of foreign direct investment to this country and its regions. At present there are almost 1,000 client companies employing almost 140,000 people.

The importance of foreign direct investment (FDI) to the Irish economy remains highly significant. In addition to exports, FDI accounts for a total of 250,000 jobs (1 in every 7 jobs) in the Irish economy and €19 billion spend on Irish sourced goods and services including €6.9 billion in payroll. Companies who have chosen Ireland as the location for their FDI operations include 9 of the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies, 8 of the top 10 US ICT companies, 17 of the top 25 medical device companies, more than 50% of the world's leading financial services firms, the top 10 'born on the internet' companies and 3 of the world's top 5 games companies.

In 2011 there was a record of 148 investments won by IDA Ireland and the immediate outlook for Ireland's foreign investment portfolio is positive with a short term pipeline in place. However, it must be remembered that it can take 3 to 5 years between the announcement of an investment and the creation of jobs from that announcement.

"New enterprises established under the auspices of the IDA since 2006"

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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Question 363: To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will provide on a county basis a breakdown of the number of Industrial Development Authority sponsored visits since 2006. [20412/12]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Details of the number of site visits by potential investors to locations in Ireland on a county by county basis in each of the years 2006 to 2011 is set out in the tabular statement below.

One of the high level goals in IDA's Strategy "Horizon 2020" is a commitment that by 2014, 50% of all Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) will be located outside of Dublin and Cork. The global economy and in particular the European economy, which is the primary target market for FDI clients in Ireland, is in a low growth phase. The challenge for IDA Ireland is to win FDI in this low growth environment. There is intense and continual international competition to win this FDI, which is mainly dominated by Metro City Regions with populations in excess of 1 million i.e. London, Manchester, Singapore, Amsterdam, Boston, Los Angeles etc.

As Ireland competes for high quality investments, the concept of scale is crucial. Leading global corporations require a significant population pool, access to qualified talent, world standard physical and digital infrastructure coupled with the availability of sophisticated professional and business support services. Ireland has only one Metro Region, the Greater Dublin area, so, in order to achieve economic regional development, IDA prioritises the marketing of Gateway locations within each Region as the locations of critical mass (i.e. sufficient scale of population, skills, infrastructure, companies, business services etc.) and highlights the opportunities provided by Hub locations which are within commuting distances of these Gateways. IDA also promotes other locations as part of its marketing efforts in response to specific client requirements.

Typically, a company is shown three or four locations within a Gateway Economic Region that can meet its requirements and, in certain cases, other locations are visited on an opportunistic basis. In selecting locations to market to client companies, IDA Ireland will endeavour to include locations which have been affected by closures/job losses. Whilst IDA Ireland seeks to influence the selection of a location, the final decision on where to locate is taken in all cases by the investor.

Breakdown of the number of IDA sponsored visits on a county basis since 2006

Note: These figures are NOT indicative of the number of companies that visited the country. Companies can visit more than one region and more than one location within a county. Therefore, these figures indicate the number of individual site visits made to various sites around the country.