John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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316. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the plans he has to divert foreign direct investment into the regions of the country that are suffering from high levels of unemployment. [2473/13]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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IDA Ireland has statutory responsibility to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to Ireland. During 2012, with IDA’s support, a number of companies made significant investments in locations outside of Dublin and Cork. Paypal announced 1,000 jobs in Dundalk, Abbott announced 175 jobs in Sligo, Mylan announced 200 jobs in Galway, Allergan announced 200 jobs in Westport and Northern Trust announced 400 jobs in Limerick. Last week Visticon announced that it was investing over €100million in the expansion of its manufacturing operations in Limerick with the creation of 100 new highly skilled manufacturing jobs and 200 temporary construction jobs. All of these announcements augur well for regional economic development throughout Ireland.

IDA Ireland has indicated that, in seeking to attract FDI to Ireland, it recognises that leading global corporations require a significant population pool, access to qualified talent, world class physical and digital infrastructure in addition to the availability of sophisticated professional and business support services. Accordingly, in order to achieve regional economic development, IDA prioritises the marketing of Gateway locations within each Region as the locations of critical mass and highlights the opportunities provided by Hub locations which are within commuting distances of these Gateways. During 2012, as part of its marketing activities, IDA Ireland began an online marketing initiative, “Connect & Invest”, to showcase the unique attributes of each region to international clients. In addition, IDA also promotes other locations as part of its marketing efforts in response to specific client requirements.

A key component of a Gateway Economic Region’s value proposition are the existing industry clusters which originated with the arrival of several large multinational companies through the support of IDA Ireland and which, in turn, create the development of an indigenous sub-supply base assisted, in some cases, by Enterprise Ireland. A number of these Irish-owned companies, particularly in the Life Sciences Sector, have since become significant international players in their own right. These clusters are primarily located in Gateway locations.

IDA Ireland has also explained that, typically, a company is shown three or four locations within a Gateway Economic Region that can meet its requirements. In certain cases other locations are visited on an opportunistic basis. In selecting locations to market to client companies, IDA Ireland also endeavours 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 client company based on its business requirements.