Written answers

Tuesday, 20 January 2015

Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Foreign Direct Investment

Photo of James BannonJames Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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273. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation his plans to encourage foreign companies to set up in Longford and Mullingar; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2670/15]

Photo of Richard BrutonRichard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by IDA Ireland that Mullingar and Longford are marketed by the Agency as part of IDA Ireland’s Midlands Region, which consists of counties Longford, Laois, Offaly, Westmeath and Roscommon.

The Midlands has a strong cluster of Medical Technologies and Life Sciences companies (Abbott, Covidien, Integra, GeneMedix, Freund, Utah, KCI, AMS) and International Business Services companies (Teleflex, AXA, NPD Group and PPD). These international brands are an attraction for additional companies to potentially locate to the Midlands.

There are 35 IDA Ireland client companies based in the Midlands Region, employing in the region of 3,800 across the Region. Of these, 6 are located in Co. Longford and employ 560 people and a further 16 companies are located in Co. Westmeath and employ 2,300 people.

A digital marketing campaign is in place to market the Midlands Region to potential investors and this is used overseas by IDA executives, to showcase potential locations within the Midlands Region including Mullingar and Longford.

The Succeed in Ireland initiative, which was launched by the Government as part of the 2012 Action Plan for Jobs, is designed to lead to additional job creation over and above IDA Ireland targets. The scheme is delivered on behalf of IDA Ireland by Connect Ireland to support any potential investors identified to locate here. One such success under the Scheme has been Arc Consulting who are now located in Longford.

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. A key element of this process is the Regional Enterprise Forum, which I chaired in Athlone on 19 December last. I hope to publish the framework strategy shortly. The Regional strategy will be rolled out firstly in the Midlands before being rolled out in other regions and will include specific actions and targets on the part of my Department, the enterprise development agencies and other public bodies to promote enterprise growth and job creation in the region.

Additionally, IDA Ireland is currently finalising its new strategy to cover the 5-year period from 2015. I look forward in the coming weeks to launching this strategy which will detail the goals and the broad direction IDA Ireland will take to accomplish those goals over the next five years.

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