Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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217. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will provide in tabular form a list of the countries of origin of all bodies which took part in Industrial Development Agency visits in 2012 and to the end of September 2013; the counties they visited and the number of jobs that resulted from these visits. [44215/13]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Details of IDA Ireland sponsored site visits by potential investors categorised by country of origin for the year 2012 and up to the end of September 2013 are set out in the attached tabular statement.

As potential investors can often visit more than one county and more than one location within a county during a particular itinerary, tracking of the number of site visits on a country of origin and on a county by county basis would not give a true reflection of the actual number of visits made.

There is always a time lag, often stretching over many years, between a site visit and a consequential investment announcement. A potential investor may pay more than one visit to a particular location and negotiations between IDA Ireland and a potential client can take a prolonged period of time to conclude. This often means that though a site visit may take place in one year, any resulting investment may not take place until the following year or later.

The Forfas Annual Employment Survey which reports on the jobs lost and gained in the enterprise development agencies shows that in 2012 there were 12,722 new jobs created in IDA client companies. The employment figures for 2013 will not be available until year end.

Table showing the number of site visits by Country of Origin for 2012 and from January 2013 to the end of September 2013