Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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89. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the steps her Department and the IDA are taking to increase job creation and attract companies to Fingal and north County Dublin; the recent occasions on which the IDA visited Fingal and north County Dublin; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50527/18]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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As Minister, my objective is to create the best possible environment for enterprise, entrepreneurship, innovation and investment. Ireland continues to perform very strongly in terms of attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) and encouraging further FDI from multinational companies remains a major priority of mine.

The pipeline of FDI into Dublin continues to be very strong. There are currently 735 FDI companies operating in the County, employing over 88,000 people. From 2016 to 2017, FDI-driven employment in Dublin increased by 7.8%, with approximately 6,400 new jobs added. The County remains highly attractive to overseas investors on account of many factors, including its proven track record as a successful home to multinational firms.

As regards Fingal and North County Dublin in particular, data on IDA Ireland site visits and job creation is collated on a county-by-county basis only. Information on site visits and job numbers to particular locations and towns is therefore unavailable.

That said, the Agency continues to promote all areas of Dublin City and the County to overseas investors. Site visits represent a useful tool through which investors can be encouraged to invest in particular locations and the IDA always does its utmost to ensure that overseas firms consider all possibilities when visiting the country. Dublin has had 209 site visits so far in 2018 with 68 of these taking place in the third quarter of this year. It is important to remember, however, that the final decision as to where to invest always rests with the company concerned.

The following table sets out the number of site visits by IDA client companies to County Dublin from 2013 to Q3 2018.