Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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67. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of Industrial Development Agency sponsored visits by entrepreneurs and other companies to counties Westmeath and Longford to date in 2014; the attempts made by his Department and the IDA to secure industry for the large IDA site at Mailinstown, Mullingar, County Westmeath; the success rate that has been scheduled in 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48653/14]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by IDA Ireland that during 2014 there have been 8 site visits to Westmeath and no site visits to Longford. Longford and Westmeath are marketed as part of IDA Ireland’s Midlands Region, which also includes the counties of Roscommon, Laois and Offaly. The Region is marketed as having a strong cluster in Medical Technology and Life Sciences and is home to key clients such as Ark Consulting in Longford and Abbott, Covidien, Integra, GeneMedix elsewhere in the region generally.

In addition, the region is home to International Business Services companies such as Teleflex, AXA, NPD Group and PPD. All of these companies are an attraction for potential IDA Ireland clients to locate in the Midlands and to provide employment opportunities for people living in both Westmeath and Longford.

Counties Longford and Westmeath are home to 24 IDA Ireland client companies employing almost 3,000 people.

As well as the FDI sector, there are over 4,000 people employed in Enterprise Ireland-supported jobs in Westmeath and Longford with over 600 employed in the medical technology-related industries in the indigenous sector, in areas such as manufacturing to delivery of elements of the supply chain.

The arrival of Jazz Pharmaceuticals to Athlone combined with the announcement of investment by Alexion Pharma and the existing presence of Alkermes, identifies a new cluster in the Midlands in biopharmaceuticals employing in the region of 400 staff and this will be presented to potential new name companies in the market place.

The IDA Mullingar Business and Technology Park is an essential infrastructure to provide for FDI clients and also for indigenous companies interested in developing their business in the Midlands. For example, Patterson Pumps acquired a 1.62 hectare site from IDA under leasehold title in the Mullingar Business and Technology Park and are currently on site. IDA Ireland continues to market the Park through its network of overseas offices and present it to its client base should the facility be suitable to locational and business requirements.

IDA Ireland recognises the challenges for Ireland and its regions in attracting FDI and, with this in mind, a new IDA strategy will be launched early in the New Year, detailing goals and the broad direction IDA will take to accomplish them over the next five years.

I have been working with my Department on the development of a framework for the formulation of Regional Enterprise Strategies that will enable us to identify the sustainable competitive strengths of each region and to better integrate the efforts of the enterprise development agencies and other regional stakeholders in supporting enterprise growth and jobs in areas of potential. It is my intention that this framework will be applied initially to produce action-oriented plans to support enterprise growth and jobs in the Midlands region and the South East region. Learning in these regions will inform any adaptations that might need to be made prior to the framework being applied to other regions in the course of 2015.