Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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149. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if the Industrial Development Agency have acted to improve their commitment to the County Offaly region including the Edenderry area which can take specific advantage of their accessibility to Dublin and the eastern region with the new Edenderry/Enfield Link Road. [10904/14]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The IDA Ireland Strategy for the period 2010 to 2014, “Horizon 2020”, set an ambitious regional economic development target of 50% of investments in regions outside Dublin and Cork and this has proven to be a challenge. 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.

Offaly, together with Laois, Longford, Westmeath and Roscommon forms IDA’s Midland Region. The location of emphasis for IDA Ireland in the Midlands Region is the linked Gateway of Tullamore, Athlone and Mullingar, which IDA actively promotes to potential investors through its network of overseas offices.

In County Offaly there are 11 IDA supported companies employing approximately 845 people, while in the region as a whole there are 43 IDA client companies employing 4,812 people. IDA Ireland engages with these companies on an ongoing basis to encourage operational stability, job retention and in certain cases expansion.

In marketing the Midlands for new foreign direct investment, IDA Ireland is focused on attracting overseas companies in the Medical Technologies, Life Sciences and International Business sectors. IDA Ireland also works closely with third level educational institutions in the region so that the skill-sets necessary to attract high value added employment to the county are being developed.

I am glad to say that during 2013 the Succeed in Ireland initiative announced a 50 person project for the Magni Group to be located in Portarlington.

IDA Ireland has also invested significantly in the development of property solutions in the Midlands Region that can meet the requirements of new and existing FDI clients. IDA Ireland will continue to market the available lands and buildings in the Midlands Gateway. In respect of Co. Offaly, IDA has a fully serviced Business Park in Srah, Tullamore with a number of green field sites available for projects.

I am 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. This analysis, will take account of factors such as key trends emerging in FDI best practice internationally, Ireland’s strengths in attracting FDI, the changes to the EU’s State Aid rules that will be introduced in 2014 and our approach to regional development will inform the formulation of an appropriate FDI strategy from 2015 onwards.