Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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25. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation his views on whether there may be an over-emphasis on multinationals with regard to job creation, in view of the fact that according to Forfás only 4,520 jobs were added by foreign-owned State-assisted companies in the decade between 2004 and 2013. [48147/14]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Foreign Direct Investment has been and continues to be an integral part of Ireland’s economic development strategy. Foreign owned firms contribute substantially to Ireland’s exports, jobs, expenditure in the Irish economy and to Exchequer funds. FDI plays a key role in the development of “new” sectors in Ireland, in enhancing our research, development and innovation performance and in accelerating the achievement of critical mass within sectors. In addition every 10 jobs in an IDA Ireland client company supports 7 jobs in the wider economy. IDA Ireland client companies spent €22.4bn in the Irish economy during 2013, of which €8.5bn was on pay roll, and €2.6bn was on Irish sourced goods and €11.3bn was on Irish services.

The figures quoted by the Deputy in his question do not reflect the fact that in the period from 2004 to 2009, the worst year for job losses in recent years, the number of foreign owned agency supported jobs fell by 14,707 from 167,806 to 153,099. Since this Government took office, the number of foreign owned agency supported jobs rose by 18,415, from 153,911 at the end of 2010 to 172,326 at the end of 2013.

As regards the Deputy’s view that there may be an over dependence on foreign owned agency supported jobs, I would like to point out that at the end of 2013, the latest date for which we have data, the numbers employed in indigenous agency supported employment stood at 176,996, which is roughly on a par with the numbers employed in foreign owned agency supported firms, with the total numbers steadily increasing.

The Government's Action Plan for Jobs is centred on rebuilding a sustainable economy based on enterprise and exports. Exporting companies supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through its agencies have recorded three strong years of employment growth, both in the creation of new jobs and in the terms of overall net change in employment when account is taken of job losses in the enterprise base.

Since the start of the Action Plan for Jobs process in 2012, employment nationally has increased by approximately 80,000 to Quarter 3 2014. Live Register figures published last week show that the number of people signing on the Register continues to decrease and the Seasonally Adjusted Standardised Unemployment Rate of 10.7% is at its lowest level since February 2009. Nonetheless, our unemployment rate is still too high and we must maintain our focus on creating a supportive environment for employment growth through the continued delivery of the Action Plan for Jobs.