Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of jobs created by the Industrial Development Agency in County Laois over the past year; and the number of jobs lost in IDA supported industry in County Meath over the same period. [9047/13]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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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. The survey shows that in 2012, in Counties Meath and Laois a total of 70 jobs were created in IDA supported companies while 126 jobs were lost. Details on the number of jobs created and lost in County Laois and in County Meath in 2012 are set out in the attached tabular statement.

There are 14 IDA supported companies in County Meath employing 1,200 people while there are 2 IDA client companies in Co. Laois employing 84 people. In addition IDA has invested heavily in property solutions in both counties. In County Laois IDA has invested €3.2m in the development of a quality flagship Business Park in Portlaoise while in County Meath IDA has spent a similar amount in the development of a 44 hectare Business Park in Navan. In addition IDA also promotes the Quinn Building in Navan as opportunity presents. The Quinn building is of sufficient scale to potentially accommodate an employment intensive project but could also be retrofitted, if required, to accommodate other activities.

Table showing the number of Jobs Created and Lost in IDA supported companies in Counties Laois and Meath in 2012

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of jobs created by the Industrial Development Agency that require foreign language skills at native speaker level over the past two years [9064/13]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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IDA Ireland’s remit is to attract foreign direct investment to Ireland thereby creating employment opportunities in Ireland. IDA Ireland has indicated that, in some cases, the investment secured will have a need for native language speakers, due to the nature of the job/function while, in other cases, employees with high, but non-native, language proficiency will be needed, particularly where other highly sought after skills are also required, such as engineering and ICT. To underpin the overall development of the foreign owned multinational sector in Ireland, it is important that Ireland meets the requirements of its multinational client base for both native and non-native language skill requirements. Research undertaken by the Expert Group on Future Skills in 2010 identified skills shortages in niche areas such as telesales, which require fluency in foreign languages. However, statistics are not maintained in such a way as to track the language skills of employees in individual IDA supported companies.

IDA Ireland has explained that its client companies primarily use Ireland as a base to service the European and Asian markets. These companies understand the importance of proficiency in local market languages to compete and sustain growth in a market. Language skills are particularly important for sales, marketing and HR staff but increasingly, FDI companies are seeking employees with backgrounds in science, technology, engineering and maths who also have a proficiency in more than one language. The importance of having the language skills necessary to drive enterprise trade and export sales has been recognised by Government and the 2013 Action Plan for Jobs, which will be published in the coming days, will address this particular challenge.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation of the 12,000 new jobs created in the private sector as claimed in the Action Plan for Jobs progress report, the number that were part time, full time or causal/temporary in nature. [9052/13]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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A total of 12,000 net new jobs were created across private sector activity in the economy in the year to the end of Quarter 3 2012. As this is an aggregate figure across different economic sectors, it is not possible to break the net figure down into full-time and part-time jobs. However, it is worth noting that IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland client companies created almost 10,000 full-time jobs between them in 2012. The most recent Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) published by the CSO, which covers Quarter 3 2012, shows that overall in the economy, there has been a trend towards a reduction in full-time employment and an increase in part-time employment. Although job losses continue to be experienced in declining sectors such as construction, jobs growth is taking place other export-oriented sectors of the economy such as agrifood and ICT. The positive results from the enterprise development agencies in 2012 underscores the merits of the Government’s focus on innovation, enterprise and exports under the Action Plan for Jobs.