Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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80. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of persons employed within IDA and Enterprise Ireland-backed companies within County Mayo; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54495/22]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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There are 92 Enterprise Ireland (EI) supported companies, employing 4,862 people in County Mayo. In 2021, there were 502 jobs created by EI supported clients.

Enterprise Ireland (EI) supports companies in every county of Ireland to start and scale, innovate, and remain competitive on international markets, now and in the future. The contribution of EI client companies to the Irish economy is very important, particularly from a regional and county perspective.

Enterprise Ireland’s Strategic Ambitions for 2022-2024 is focused on Leading in a Changing World in every county throughout the country, including Mayo, by creating and developing export-focused Irish enterprises delivering growth, becoming a world-leading location to start and scale a business, achieving competitive advantage through customer-led innovation and digitalisation and leading globally on sustainability and achieving climate action targets.

Powering the Regions is Enterprise Ireland’s response to recent Government Regional Initiatives including the Future Jobs Ireland framework, the Regional Assemblies, Regional Enterprise Plans and Project Ireland 2040. It provides an overarching national plan underpinned by nine regional specific plans, to grow and sustain jobs, and to expand the reach of the Enterprise Ireland client base in every county and region in Ireland.

The plan proposes six new national initiatives which aims to future-proof the regions through enhanced productivity and resilience, drive new entrepreneurship, develop urban centres of growth, support the expansion of scaling companies into the regions and attract foreign direct investment in the food sector.

On 19 July 2022, 5 businesses from Mayo were successful in the Online Retail Scheme competitive call. On 7 October 2021, 14 New Frontiers projects were selected and started phase 2 places on the West Programme with 6 of these from Mayo.

A number of businesses were also approved funding under the Enterprise Centres Fund and regional funding which will help to enable recovery and growth following the COVID-19 pandemic.

EI will continue to work closely with their client companies in Mayo to build and develop opportunities to enable further job creation and sustainable enterprises in the county.

There are 120 IDA supported companies in the West Region, employing 29,419 people in total. In County Mayo there are 16 IDA supported companies employing 5,145 in total.

IDA will continue to work closely with the private sector in Mayo and the West region to secure the provision of appropriate and cost-effective building and property solutions for client companies. The FDI performance in the Region has been strong over the past five years with employment among IDA clients increasing by 32%. There is a significant ecosystem of well-established Life Sciences companies, which has helped drive strong cluster development. The number of people employed in software engineering, technical support, global business services and R&D in the Region has also grown considerably in recent years.

IDA’s property investment programme for the West Region included the construction of Advance Building Solutions (ABS) in Castlebar, Co. Mayo and in Galway. An Advance Office Building (AOB) of c.45,000sqft was completed in 2018 in Parkmore, Galway, which was delivered through a PPP model. The ABS in Parkmore, Galway is now completed and is currently being marketed. The ABS in Castlebar was acquired by Meissner Filtration, a California headquartered company, who announced the creation of 150 jobs in 2019.

As the Deputy is aware, under their new property programme over 2021-2024, IDA will deliver an additional Advance Building Solution in Castlebar and continue to engage with Mayo County Council to progress a partnership to develop additional business park and strategic lands for future development. The Agency will also work in partnership with Mayo County Council to develop access infrastructure to lands in Ballina.

IDA Ireland continues to market Mayo and the West through its overseas offices to target mobile FDI opportunities and will arrange corresponding site visits as required. IDA positions the West Region as home to the leading cluster of Life Sciences industries and a growing technology cluster, and will be targeting Lifesciences, Medical Devices, Financial Services and Technology sectors for investment opportunities in RD&I, advanced manufacturing, global business services and technology development.