Seán Kenny (Dublin North East, Labour)
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355. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the steps Enterprise Ireland and the Industrial Development Agency Ireland are taking to create employment in Clonshaugh Business and Technology Park in Dublin 17; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37490/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The goal of this Government has been to replace all of the jobs lost during the economic crisis and deliver sustainable full employment by the end of 2018. The Government introduced the Action Plan for Jobs process in 2012, where annually we have mapped out a significant number of targets to support the maintenance and creation of jobs. We are on track to exceed our target of 100,000 additional jobs by 2016.

Earlier this year, I announced funding for a competitive process to drive enterprise growth and new employment in all regions. As part of this initiative, Enterprise Ireland has launched two competitive funds in 2015:

- A €5 million Community Enterprise Initiative Scheme to support collaborative proposals to promote entrepreneurship, create jobs, foster innovation and enhance export opportunities for small business.

- A €5 million Competitive Fund for Local Enterprise Offices to fund initiatives impacting on and supporting micro-enterprise throughout the country.

- A €40m open competitive call for strategic, sectorally focused and regionally based projects will also be launched by Enterprise Ireland over the coming months. To inform the design of this formal open competitive call, submissions were invited in August that will help to identify potential areas of enterprise and sectoral opportunities. These submissions are currently being examined by Enterprise Ireland.

The Clonshaugh Business and Technology Park is currently the location of IDA Ireland clients such as Forest Labs and Amazon. There are no marketable lands remaining in the Park but there are, however, a number of vacant large-scale industrial units and, as part of its value proposition for Dublin, IDA Ireland markets these large facilities to suitable potential clients.

As is evidenced with IDA Ireland investment announcements over the past number of years, a significant number locate in Dublin so it is reasonable to expect that this trend will continue and, while significant progress has been made in supporting job creation and in reducing unemployment rates in all regions of the country, this Government is not complacent about the challenge of achieving sustainable full employment over the medium term, in all regions including Clonshaugh Industrial Park.

Dublin is recognised as one of Europe’s leading business locations and is now an internationally renowned cluster for technology and financial services companies. The city has been a spectacular success in terms of Foreign Direct Investment as it hosts many of the world’s leading companies such as Google, eBay, PayPal, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Oracle, Pfizer, Amgen, IBM, Citi and Accenture, BNY Mellon, Takeda and Bristol Myers Squibb. All of these multinationals use the abundance of infrastructure and utilities available in the capital to run their operations.

As Ireland competes for high quality investments, the concept of scale is crucial. Leading global corporations require a significant population pool, access to qualified talent, world class physical and digital infrastructure in addition to the availability of sophisticated professional and business support services.

IDA Ireland’s strategy for Dublin is aimed at progressing the business infrastructure, including the development of a knowledge economy, in order that the region can compete both nationally and internationally for foreign direct investment. The Agency continues to work with the existing client base in Dublin to encourage them to expand and diversify into higher value added goods and services. They also act as a broker between the Higher Education Authorities, key client companies and Science Foundation Ireland, to encourage further research and development. Dublin is already global in the scale of its education and research infrastructure and is well positioned as a “knowledge” city which competes successfully on the global stage.