Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Mid-West has a significant ecosystem of well-established companies across Technology, Life Sciences, International Financial Services and Engineering & Industrial Technologies. There are 143 IDA client companies in the Mid-West Region (Clare, Limerick and Tipperary) employing 24,169 people. The FDI performance in the region has been consistent over the past five years with employment among IDA clients increasing by 29%. 

IDA Ireland will target 76 investments for the Mid-West region in the period 2021 to 2024. Counties in the Mid-West also benefit from the direct and indirect employment generated by IDA client companies located in other bordering regions, including the cities of Cork, Galway, Kilkenny and Waterford.  

Several IDA Ireland client companies have since 2020 announced new operations in the region, expansion of employment mandates and R&D growth including in 2020 Axiom SL, Meira GTx, Bath Fitter, Regeneron, Exida, Transact Campus and in 2021 year-to-date Indigo Telecom Group, IQEQ, Renovo, Fiserv, OLED Material Manufacturing PPG, Abbott Vascular and Bosch. 

The Mid-West is now recognised as a global cluster location of choice for advanced manufacturing including both life science and semiconductor manufacturing multinationals such as Abbott Vascular, Analog Devices, Beckman Coulter, Boston Scientific, Johnson and Johnson Visioncare, Edwards Lifesciences, Cook Medical, Stryker Corporation, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Zimmer Biomet.  The value proposition will be further enhanced when the Advanced Manufacturing Centre in the National Technology Park  is completed.

The Mid-West is also home to Shannon Airport, which facilitates international, transatlantic connectivity and is an important infrastructure asset for FDI access across the western part of the country. IDA Ireland will continue to engage with multinational online selling and distribution companies as part of their strategy to attract investment.  In addition, the Mid-West has developed a strong professional services and technology ecosystem including companies like Dell Technologies, Extreme Networks, Fiserv, IQEQ, Waystone and a number with supply chain and distribution functions like DHL and DB Schenker.

IDA Ireland is a member of the Regional Enterprise Plan Steering Committee for the Mid-West Region and the Agency looks forward to working closely with its partners on the implementation of the Plan and continuing the strong spirit of collaboration and collective effort essential to delivering on the shared ambition for the Mid-West Region.