Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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44. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment his views on foreign direct investment in Ireland in 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44480/22]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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IDA Ireland published their mid-year results in July and despite the challenging global environment, the results demonstrated significant foreign direct investment for the first half of 2022. In the first half of this year, we have seen investment levels exceed 2021 mid-year results by 9% and 2019 mid-year results by 10%, meaning we have exceeded pre-pandemic levels of FDI. Ireland won 155 investments up to the end of the second quarter this year. Notably, 73 of these were new name investments and 73 were went to regional locations. These investments have an associated employment potential of over 18,000 jobs.

These are remarkable results considering the global challenges we have been and are currently faced with. These results, won within such an uncertain and challenging period, really demonstrate the attractiveness of our value proposition for FDI, in addition to our strong and ongoing reputation as a competitive, stable and resilient place to do business.

However, we can never take our success in attracting and maintaining FDI for granted. With rising energy costs, climate change, inflation, Russia’s war against Ukraine and increased international competition for FDI, we must continue our efforts to maintain Ireland’s attractiveness as a location for investment and as a great place to do business. My Department is currently reviewing our enterprise policy and exploring several high-level policy questions to ensure that Ireland’s economy remains attractive to enterprise and that we maintain our competitive value proposition.