James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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75. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the way in which her Department has collaborated with the IDA and Enterprise Ireland to promote economic growth in County Wexford; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31814/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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IDA Ireland's strategy for 2015-2019 includes a commitment to increase foreign direct investment (FDI) in every region outside of Dublin by 30% to 40%. The Agency has already made good progress towards achieving this goal with Wexford performing particularly well. This is reflected in net job gains with FDI jobs in the county increasing from 2,486 in 2015 to 2,630 in 2016, an uplift of almost 6%.

IDA Ireland also continues to explore new avenues for attracting FDI to the entire South East region. These include the development of advance facilities, new marketing initiatives and a campaign to encourage Dublin-based multinational companies to establish satellite offices in the region.

Currently there are three IDA Ireland sites and one private finance facility available to market in Wexford. The number of IDA Ireland supported site visits to Wexford has increased from 1 in 2014 to 7 in 2016. The IDA continues to work hard to convert interest shown to date by potential investors into investments on the ground in the county.

In 2016, Enterprise Ireland (EI) supported companies in Wexford employed 4,816 people, a net gain on 109 on 2015.  EI has paid €4.2 million to companies in Wexford across the period 2014 – 2016 and has co-funded four Community Enterprise Centres in the county.

Under the APJ Funding Scheme for the Local Enterprise Offices four projects were approved for funding which had Wexford LEO as a collaborative partner.