Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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200. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the extent to which Ireland continues to remain an attractive location for foreign direct investment in both the manufacturing and services sectors; the countries inside or outside the European Union with which Ireland is in direct competition in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7332/22]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Ireland will continue to remain an attractive location for FDI in both the manufacturing and services sectors.

During 2021 IDA Ireland won 249 FDI investments, 104 of which were new name investments. The number of people directly employed in multinational companies in Ireland grew to 275,384, with over 29,000 new jobs being created by the sector in 2021. These figures, which encompass both the manufacturing and service sectors, reveal the confidence of investors in Ireland because these investment decisions were taken not only within the context of the OECD International Tax negotiations and agreement, but also during a volatile international environment as a result of Brexit, the pandemic and a global downturn in FDI.

IDA Ireland recognises that there is global competition for mobile foreign direct investment, and closely monitors competitor locations and the value propositions they offer. Published reports from subject matter experts including EY and FDI Markets, a division of the Financial Times, indicate the top performing countries in Europe for FDI attraction. Ireland features prominently in these rankings, typically alongside far larger countries including the UK, Germany, Spain, France, Poland and the Netherlands. In this context, IDA Ireland strives to ensure that Ireland’s value proposition is the most competitive and relevant to the investment being targeted.

Competition for FDI is intense, with virtually every country in the world seeking new FDI investments. Every single job created in Ireland by an FDI company has been hard won, against competition from a growing number of sophisticated locations. Ireland’s success in attracting a large share of substantive, job creating FDI reflects the country’s strength as a location in which businesses can succeed and grow.