Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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157. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the targets set by IDA Ireland for foreign direct investment to each NUTS III region as required by the regional enterprise action plan; and the progress to date in meeting the respective targets. [14687/21]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Nine Regional Steering Committees established by my Department are implementing Regional Enterprise Plans.  This ‘bottom-up’ collaborative mechanism, involves IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, Local Enterprise Offices, Local Authorities, higher and further education bodies, private sector and others, within each region, chaired by a senior figure from industry.

The Plans are focused on addressing region-specific enterprise development challenges and opportunities and the Regional Steering Committees provide a mechanism for joined up responses at a regional level.  The current Plans concluded at the end of 2020 and my Department is currently overseeing the development of new Regional Enterprise Plans to 2024. There are no specific targets for FDI in the Regional Enterprise Plans. Regional targets for FDI are set within the context of the IDA Corporate Strategy.

The Government and IDA Ireland work hard to promote the country abroad for foreign direct investment (FDI), particularly in the face of international competition and current unprecedented challenges including Brexit and Covid-19. Retaining and strengthening Ireland’s reputation as a first-class destination for FDI remains fundamentally important to our economic model.

The Government, along with IDA Ireland recognises that global competition for FDI is intensifying. We will have to work harder than ever before for new foreign direct investment and to expand the operations of current investors here.  Within this context, IDA Ireland published its new strategy Driving Recovery & Sustainable Growth 2021-2024 in January 2021. It prioritises growing the regional enterprise base, driving productivity, building a sustainable enterprise base and increasing the spill-over effects from FDI to SMEs.