Written answers

Tuesday, 10 November 2020

Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment

Foreign Direct Investment

Photo of Bernard DurkanBernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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180. To ask the Minister for Trade, Enterprise and Employment the extent of employment generating foreign direct investment in the past year; his expectations for the future in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35398/20]

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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IDA Ireland completed its five-year strategy in December 2019. Significant progress was made during this period in growing foreign direct investment jobs with total employment in multinationals standing at over 245,000 people, the highest in the history of IDA Ireland.

However, the arrival of COVID-19 in Ireland earlier this year has presented undeniable challenges to our ongoing efforts to sustain and grow FDI in Ireland. The introduction of travel restrictions around the world is already, for example, disrupting the typical way in which the IDA engages with investors, resulting in fewer numbers of site visits and client meetings. The pandemic has also impacted investor confidence and has likely caused some investment decisions to be delayed or postponed.

Notwithstanding these challenges, which are also faced by our competitor countries, IDA Ireland's results for the first six months of this year have demonstrated the resilience of our FDI base. The Agency has secured over 130 investments to date in 2020, which have the potential to create almost 10,000 jobs. Almost half of these new projects were secured for locations outside Dublin, with 53 investments from companies investing in Ireland for the first time.

I believe that these 2020 investments reflect our continuing attractiveness to overseas firms. Overseas companies continue, the evidence would suggest, to value our FDI strengths. These include our talented and flexible work-force, a track record as a successful home to global businesses and a hard-won reputation as a pro-enterprise jurisdiction. Our continued commitment to the European Union, the single market and Eurozone, as well as to free trade and multilateralism, are other key selling points that help us convince multinational companies to establish operations and create jobs here.

Looking to the future, we recognise that the global competition for FDI is intensifying and we are under no illusions that the time ahead will prove more challenging. We will have to fight, harder than ever before, for new investment projects and the jobs that go with them. This will include working with the IDA on the completion of a new strategy to guide the Agency's work in the time ahead.

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