Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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15. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation how he will increase the number of Industrial Development Agency Ireland-sponsored visits to County Donegal and accordingly increase the county's share of job creation numbers within the north east and the north west regions, given that counties such as Sligo and Louth experience higher numbers of agency-sponsored visits, yet are grouped in the same regional category as County Donegal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2078/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Since the start of the Action Plan for Jobs process in 2012, over 20,000 jobs have been created in the North East/North West region, which includes Donegal. This is in stark contrast to the five years up to 2011 when Donegal lost 3,400 jobs with particularly big falls in manufacturing and in construction. During that period, employment in foreign-owned companies stagnated and by 2011 represented less than 3.5% of total employment in Donegal.

In the past 5 years IDA employment in Donegal has grown by over 1000 jobs; an increase of almost 58%. This is an exceptionally strong performance for the country.

The number of jobs in the 12 IDA Ireland client companies in County Donegal rose considerably from 2,101 in 2011 to 2,918 in 2015 and represents almost 30% of the 9,926 people employed in client companies across the entire North East and North West Region. Given the global economic environment in recent years, the existing client base has not only performed well in retaining its presence in Donegal but is also expanding. The most recent example of this was the announcement in July of last year by Pramerica of the expansion of its facility in Donegal by 330 jobs.

While there were five IDA Ireland-sponsored site visits to Donegal in 2015, it is clear from the jobs growth figures that data on site visits is not a true measure of FDI activity in a region or county. 70% of all new FDI investment comes from existing client companies.