Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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420. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will provide, in tabular form, the number of jobs created here directly as a result of each of the EU free trade agreements to which the State has signed up. [34416/14]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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EU studies point to long term evidence from the EU which shows that a 1% increase in the openness of the economy leads to an increase of 0.6% in labour productivity. They also show that more trade is essential to job creation: About 30 million jobs in the EU depend on sales to the rest of the world, and on average, each additional €1 billion of exports supports 15,000 additional jobs across the EU. For Ireland, as an economy shaped and reshaped over the last 50 years by trade liberalisation, this is important evidence that export-led job creation in the longer term is the right policy choice.

It is estimated that 90% of world demand will be generated outside the EU over the next 10-15 years, so it makes absolute sense that the EU would be engaged in free trade agreement negotiations with other major trading blocs. It is important that we create better market access for Irish based firms in such rapidly growing economies.

The Action Plan for Jobs contains commitments, including as regards our programme of overseas trade missions, to taking specific measures that will help Irish businesses to get a foothold and compete in international markets, taking full advantage of free trade agreements, which in turn will create jobs.