Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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115. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he is aware of impending job losses at a company (details supplied) in County Clare, despite Government's announcement last year that the company intended to create 100 additional jobs over the next year; if he will provide, in tabular form, the annual number of full-time jobs announced by the Government, via the regular jobs announcements Government statements; and of these, the actual number of jobs delivered. [24218/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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In 2014, this company announced the expansion of its facility in Shannon, County Clare, with the creation of approximately 100 new jobs over the 200 jobs already in place with the company. These 100 jobs were created and are currently in situ. Any further announcement about its future is a matter for the company.

So far this year IDA Ireland has announced four new projects for the Mid-West Region (Shannon and Limerick) with a job potential of over 600 people at full operation. These companies are. Amax, Viagogo, Northern Trust and Dell.

In relation to the Deputy’s query on new job announcements, 2014 was a record year for IDA Ireland with 197 investments being secured for Ireland and 15,012 gross new jobs being created in IDA Ireland client companies. There was a notable rise in new name investments with 88 new name investments being secured in 2014. For a variety of reasons many companies do not seek any publicity on proposed investments and many projects proceed without being publicly announced. During 2014, there were only 66 investment announcements, of which 38 were new projects with the balance being made up of expansion projects.

In relation to expansion of the Irish –owned sector, it is noteworthy that client companies of Enterprise Ireland created 19,705 jobs in 2014, which represented a net increase of 8,476 people employed in EI supported companies, the highest net gain in the history of that Agency.

It is important to acknowledge the natural time lag between an announcement of an investment and the coming on stream of that project, which can be between 3 and 5 years in some cases. That time is required for such activities as locating and acquiring a suitable site for the company’s operations, constructing a facility, installing machinery, the recruitment and training of suitable staff and a natural developmental phase.

Because of the time lag it is not possible to compare the numbers of jobs announced with the numbers of jobs created. In any given year the number of jobs created exceeds the number of jobs announced. Taking 2014 as an example, the IDA job announcements indicated a potential job creation figure in the region of 7,000 jobs whereas the actual number of new jobs created in IDA Ireland client companies in 2014 was in fact 15,012.

The level of investments coming on stream is best measured by the number of new jobs created in any given year as recorded in the Annual Employment Survey carried out by my Department.