Written answers

Tuesday, 10 May 2022

Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment

Official Engagements

Photo of Alan KellyAlan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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160. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the senior officials of companies he met with during his recent visit to the west coast of the United States of America. [22954/22]

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I visited the United States from 24 – 29 April 2022 as part of a trade and investment mission to the US West Coast region. The trade and investment mission was jointly organised by our trade and investment agencies, Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, and I was accompanied by the CEOs of the two agencies.

The primary focus of all trade and investment missions is to encourage business-to-business links, to maximise opportunities to help Irish companies to access new markets and to increase the levels of foreign direct investment into Ireland which in turn creates employment opportunities.

During the trade visit, I met with executives of the following IDA client companies: Microsoft; Amazon Web Services; Intel; Apple; Google; and Salesforce.

The discussions during each meeting covered a range of topics including:

Ireland’s commitment to FDI and discussion of clients’ operations in Ireland and future plans;

Ireland’s value proposition for potential future investment;

Irish government policy in areas of interest to international investors;

Ireland's economic progress post COVID-19;

Impacts of the war in Ukraine on FDI.

While in the USA, I also had trade and investment meetings with executives of the following companies: T MOBILE; Alaska Airlines; Taoglas; Utmost, ChristianaCare; Starcircle and DoorDash.

As part of the mission is to highlight trade and investment opportunities, and to support the work of Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, I participated in a number of business events and roundtable discussions events including a venture capital roundtable, ICT Advisory Panel; a Bay Area Industry roundtable; and a US Healthcare Roundtable Meeting. These meetings were attended by executives from a large number of companies which are operating in the relevant areas.

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