Written answers

Tuesday, 3 February 2015

Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

IDA Site Visits

Photo of Peadar TóibínPeadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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301. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the date of each visit by an Industrial Development Agency or Enterprise Ireland prospective client to the former NEC factory in Ballivor County Meath. [4387/15]

Photo of Peadar TóibínPeadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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302. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the date of each visit by an Industrial Development Agency prospective client to each town in County Meath for each of the past five years. [4388/15]

Photo of Richard BrutonRichard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 301 and 302 together.

I am informed by IDA Ireland that in the 5-year period from 2010 to 2014, inclusive, there were a total of five IDA Ireland-sponsored site visits by potential investors to County Meath. IDA sponsored itinerary visits by potential investors include visits to multiple locations where there are greenfield or current turn-key property solutions for them to consider. The majority of these solutions, with the exception of Dublin and to a lesser extent Cork, are usually situated on the outskirts of towns and cities.

For reasons of client confidentiality and commercial sensitivity, such as the potential impact on any future property transactions that may arise from a possible investment, it is prudent to provide details of such visits on a county by county basis only.

IDA Ireland, who also provide property solutions to certain Enterprise Ireland client companies, have informed me that although it has been actively promoting the former NEC site at Ballivor as a potential property solution to prospective clients, as yet this promotion has not translated into a site visit.

Growing both Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and indigenous enterprise is key to Ireland’s economic recovery. I am glad to inform the Deputy that 2014 was a record year for both IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland in terms of investment wins and job creation, with 7,131 net new jobs being created in IDA Ireland client companies and 8,476 net new jobs being created in Enterprise Ireland client companies. In County Meath alone, IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland client companies employ 7,900 people in full and part time employment.

Additionally, two US companies opened their offices in Kells in November 2014, as a result of the Succeed in Ireland Initiative, which is implemented by Connect Ireland on behalf of IDA Ireland. The inclusion of Kells in the national Regional Aid Map will further enhance the prospects of attracting new investment and the expansion of existing enterprises, both foreign and indigenous, in County Meath .

As the Deputy is aware, the Action Plan for Jobs 2015 was launched on Thursday last, 29th January. This is the fourth annual plan in a multi-year process, which started in 2012. When the First Action Plan for Jobs was launched, unemployment stood at 15.1%. Today it stands at 10.6% and we are on track to exceed our target of 100,000 additional jobs by 2016. We are now setting a goal to bring employment to 2.1 million by 2018 – 2 years ahead of our original target.

We are determined that every region will benefit from the recovery and we will be announcing over the coming weeks and month a series of actions to help drive the achievement of this goal.

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