Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

78. To ask the Minister for Trade, Enterprise and Employment the number of IDA Ireland site visits to locations in counties Cavan and Monaghan to date in 2020. [37531/20]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Government is strongly committed to regional development and my Department and its agencies - including IDA Ireland - are working towards ambitious targets to ensure that employment and investment are as evenly distributed as possible across the country. 54,868 jobs were created outside of Dublin over the past five years leading to 33,118 additional direct jobs (net) on the ground in regions at the end of this strategy. Every region hit the five-year strategy targets of a 30% uplift in investment and three regions - the Mid West, Mid East and South East exceeded 40% of targets.

Investments in the Border region increased threefold since the outset of the strategy. The last two years for example have seen a number of high-profile foreign direct investment (FDI) announcements in the border region, including Cavan and Monaghan. 

Last year there were a total 11 site visits to Cavan and Monaghan which accounted for approximately 20% of all site visits in the North East region. The Deputy will appreciate that the introduction of international travel restrictions related to Covid-19 has, amongst other things, led to the cancellation or postponement of scheduled IDA site visits and client meetings in every region of the country, including Cavan, Monaghan and the wider border region.  To date this year, there has been 1 site visit to Cavan and 1 site visit to Monaghan.   

As an alternative to site visits, the IDA has migrated many of its business development and client engagement activities to digital platforms. The Agency has developed new digital content and has also put in place an E-Site Visit experience for potential investors. There have been a total of 131 in-person site visits and 101 E-visits nationally as of the third quarter and this is the latest data available.

My Department and the IDA are continuing to work hard to attract further investment to all regions, despite the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic.  The Agency continues to work closely with their clients to drive further investment and job creation to the region.