Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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16. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of job announcements made by the Industrial Development Agency, broken down by region within the State, for the three years 2008 to 2010; the number of jobs announcements by the IDA for the same regions for the three years 2011 to 2013; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2779/14]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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I have been informed by IDA Ireland that in respect of job announcements, they are tracked on a calendar basis and not by region. In the period from 2008- 2010 there were 176 announcements, while in the period from 2011- 2013 there were 221 announcements, an increase of 25%, an increase with which I am pleased as foreign direct investment (FDI) is key to Ireland’s economic recovery. I have arranged to have copies of IDA Ireland’s announcements for each year from 2008 to 2013 supplied to the Deputy.

For a variety of reasons many IDA Ireland sponsored investments proceed without announcement. I would like to say that while IDA Ireland’s investment announcements are indicative of the improvement in our economic performance since this Government came to office, a better indicator by far are the Agency’s recently announced End of Year Results. Those results show that in 2013, 164 investments were secured and a record 7,071 net new jobs were created, the highest job creation figures in over a decade. There are now over 161,000 people employed in IDA Ireland client companies, the highest in IDA Ireland’s history

At the end of 2013 72,500 people, roughly 44% of the total employment in IDA Ireland client companies, are located outside of Dublin and Cork. This figure includes those companies that were heretofore Shannon Development client companies.

It must be acknowledged that some locations outside of Dublin and the main urban areas already facilitate the presence of a large number of multinational companies who have invested over the years, span multiple sectors and employ significant amounts of people. The primary opportunity for regional locations is in respect of the existing client base and potential further opportunities from same. Approximately 70% of all FDI investment won by IDA Ireland is from the existing client base. Indeed during 2013, there were some very big announcements in regional locations such as Dundalk, Limerick and Waterford.

I am, of course, concerned at the lack of investment in certain regional locations and I have, accordingly, requested IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland to work with my Department so that we can explore what further initiatives we can take to ensure we have a better approach to enterprise development in regional locations. This exercise will complement the in-depth analysis of our FDI strategy which is currently being undertaken by Forfás and which will take account of factors such as key trends emerging in FDI best practice internationally, Ireland’s strengths in attracting FDI and any changes to the EU’s State Aid Rules, which will come into effect on 1 July 2014. The results of these two exercises will form the basis of IDA Ireland’s strategy from 2015 onwards.

Finally I have appointed Frank Ryan, former Chief Executive Officer of Enterprise Ireland to be Chairperson of the board of IDA Ireland with effect from 1 January 2014. Given his previous experience in supporting enterprise development in this country while working in both IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland, he is ideally placed to oversee the next phase of growth in the multinational; sector. I have every confidence that under his Chairmanship, the multinational sector can continue the strong growth which has been so crucial to our economic recovery in recent years. I look forward to working with IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and officials of my Department in developing strategies for the enhancement of enterprise and jobs in the regional locations.