Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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591. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of IDA Ireland site visits by county in each of the years 2016 to 2018, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19501/19]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Information on IDA Ireland site visits for the period in question is set out in the table below. This includes details on the number of site visits over the first three months of 2019.

Whilst site visits remain an important tool in helping showcase regional locations to investors, it is important to remember - as I have made clear before - that the final decision as to where to invest rests solely with the company concerned. It is also the case that site visit activity does not necessarily reflect investment potential, as a significant proportion of all new foreign direct investment (FDI) comes from existing IDA clients already present in the country.

More broadly, creating more jobs in the regions is a priority for both the IDA and my Department in 2019 as we seek to build on the progress made over the last number of years. In 2018, for example, the IDA delivered 113 regional investments with 56% of net new jobs created outside Dublin. The last four years have seen 44,500 new FDI-driven jobs generated outside the capital.