Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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259. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will provide a list of the sites currently owned by the Industrial Development Authority in the constituency of Louth, by location, which have potential use in attracting inward investment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5653/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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IDA Ireland owns a total of 70.45 hectares of land in County Louth which have the potential for use for inward investment purposes. The locations of these sites are set out in the tabular statement. The site in Mullagharlin has advanced planning for a bio pharma campus.

The availability of an adequate supply of marketable, serviced land and office and industrial / technology buildings in advance of demand is a key element in IDA Ireland’s ability to compete for mobile FDI.

The availability of property solutions eliminates the lead times normally associated with acquiring property, enables clients to plan their property needs with a greater degree of certainty and allows for the commencement of projects at an earlier date by eliminating much of the difficulties associated with land acquisition, planning and construction.

At the end of 2014, there were 23 IDA Ireland client companies in County Louth, employing 3,029 people in full and part time employment. IDA Ireland has strong relationships with all these companies and works closely with them to ensure their long term sustainability and to encourage their growth, development and continuing re-investment in their sites.

County Louth has strong clusters in international business services, with companies in the region such as eBay, Coca-Cola, National Pen and International Fund Services; and in manufacturing with companies such as Cargotec and Becton Dickinson. These international brands are an attraction for additional companies to potentially locate to the North East region. In 2014 alone Becton Dickson announced a €16m investment and expansion of its headquarters in Drogheda while PayPal announced the expansion of its facility in Dundalk with creation of a further 400 jobs.

As the Deputy is aware, the Action Plan for Jobs 2015 was launched recently. 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 months a series of actions to help drive the achievement of this goal.

Table shows sites owned by IDA Ireland in Louth which have potential for use for inward investment purposes.