Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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77. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of site visits for potential investors arranged by the Industrial Development Agency on a county basis for the past three years. [4731/14]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Details of the number of IDA sponsored site visits by potential investors on a county basis from 2011 to 2013 are set out in the attached tabular statement.

There are many complex factors influencing investor location decision-making such as the increasing preference of investors globally for cities of scale with 1 million plus population, significant challenges from lower cost locations in the UK and Eastern Europe and attractive regional aid.

It must be acknowledged that some regional locations outside of Dublin and the main urban centres 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 investment opportunities from same. Approximately 70% of all FDI investments won by IDA Ireland is from the existing client base. I should also point out that 72,500 people, roughly 44% of the total employment in IDA Ireland’s base of companies including those that were former clients of Shannon Development, are located outside of Dublin and Cork.

As I have said in this House on more than one occasion, 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.

Table showing the number of IDA sponsored site visits on a county by county basis in each of the years 2011 to 2013 inclusive