Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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21. To ask the Minister for Trade, Enterprise and Employment the level of new investment arising from IDA sponsored enterprises in counties Meath and Westmeath, respectively, in each of the years 2015 to 2019 and to date in 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25956/20]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Counties Meath and Westmeath continue to be strong performers in terms of attracting foreign direct investment (FDI). From 2015 to 2019, the number of IDA client companies based in County Meath increased from 16 to 19 with 371 net new jobs added during this period. Since 2015, there have been a number of significant announcements from companies in Meath including Facebook and PCI Pharma.

In County Westmeath, the number of multinational firms increased from 18 companies in 2015 to 22 companies at the end of last year. IDA client companies in County Westmeath also reported a net increase of 963 new jobs from 2015 to 2019. There have also been a number of high-profile investments from FDI firms during this period including Neueda Technologies, Teleflex Medical and Aerie Pharmaceuticals.

The following tables outline the total number of IDA client companies and level of employment from 2015 to 2019 in Counties Meath and Westmeath. Figures on job creation and new investments for 2020 will not be available until the release of my Department's Annual Employment Survey in 2021.

Table A: Number of IDA client companies and employment data for County Meath 2015-2019

Table B: Number of IDA client companies and employment data for County Westmeath 2015-2019