Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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311. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of Industrial Development Agency site visits undertaken in Dublin North East and Dublin North Central in 2013 and 2014; his plans to encourage more visits in 2015; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4732/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by IDA Ireland that information in relation to site sponsored visits by potential investors is provided on a county by county basis only and during 2013 and 2014 there were a total of 385 such visits to Dublin, city and county. For reasons of commercial sensitivity and client confidentiality IDA Ireland does not release details of individual locations visited or comment on upcoming visits arranged.The number of site visits by potential investors to Dublin city and county in each of the years 2013 and 2014 are set out in the attached tabular statement. It must also be remembered that decisions as to where to visit and where to locate is ultimately a matter for the investor.

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.

As the Deputy is aware, the Action Plan for Jobs 2015 was launched on Thursday last, 29^thJanuary. 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.

Tables shows the number of IDA Ireland sponsored site visits by potential investors to Dublin, city and county during 2013 and 2014.