Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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195. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of IDA Ireland site visits to locations in County Galway to date in 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44146/20]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Galway forms part of the IDA’s West region along with Mayo and Roscommon. The County continues to perform strongly and is a location of choice for investors. There are now over 21,000 people employed across 88 IDA client companies in Galway City and County.

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 Galway. 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. To date in 2020, there has been a total of 16 site visits to Galway, with E-visits accounting for 10 of those.