Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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209. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the extent to which his Department continues to work with all relevant Departments and agencies to assist in the promotion of Ireland as an attractive location for business, investment and trade. [24621/23]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Each year, Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland prepare a programme of trade missions and events which support the goal of securing high-level market access for companies based in Ireland who are aiming to grow business overseas and increase domestic employment, and showcasing opportunities for foreign direct investment in support of high-quality jobs and regional development throughout Ireland.

In recent years the majority of Ministerial-led trade missions have taken place to the Eurozone, North America and Asia Pacific, which represent the strongest growth opportunities for Irish companies. These missions have focused on promoting the innovative capabilities and competitive offerings of Irish companies to international buyers in a range of sectors including internationally traded services, fintech, high-tech construction, engineering, ICT and life sciences.

My Department works closely with Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland to identify opportunities to help Irish companies access new markets and increase the levels of foreign direct investment into Ireland.

To date in 2023, Ministerial-led trade and investment visits and missions have taken place to Arab Health in Dubai; the US West Coast; UN City Copenhagen; the US East Coast; Warsaw and Prague; and Germany and France. My Department is continuing to work closely with its agencies in relation to a programme of trade missions and visits for the second half of 2023.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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210. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment further to his Department's Strategy Statement 2021-2023, if he continues to make efforts to work with all relevant Departments and agencies to assist in the promotion of Ireland as an attractive location for business, investment and trade. [24994/23]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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In spite of the challenges across the global economy over recent years, Ireland’s continues to remain resilient and perform well. We have our highest level of FDI employment ever, with 301,475 persons directly employed in IDA multinational clients during 2022 while our Enterprise Ireland companies employed 218,180 people during 2022.

As we look to the future, FDI and trade will remain central to our growth model and economic strategy, building on the strong fundamentals we have in place. In my Department’s new Statement of Strategy, 2023-2025, we identify as key goals to enhance our business regulatory environment and Ireland’s attractiveness as a place to do business as well as to deepen and extend Ireland’s global business and trade in a responsible, fair and environmentally sustainable manner supporting of higher living standards and growing the all-Ireland economy.

This strategic approach reflects and reaffirms the objectives of the White Paper on Enterprise, published in December 2022. The White Paper on Enterprise sets out Ireland`s industrial policy for the medium- to long-term, building on Ireland`s economic strengths of an open economy with strong trade and foreign direct investment, a vibrant innovation hub, and a resilient labour market. Key targets include maintaining full employment, strengthening the Irish-owned exporting sector, and advancing Ireland’s FDI and trade value proposition.

The effective implementation of The Trade and Investment Strategy: Value for Ireland, Values for the World will be integral to our efforts to support Ireland to increase exports sustainably, to deepen and extend our trade relationships, to grow quality employment, and to build a more resilient economy.

The White Paper also acknowledges challenges around enterprise framework conditions, which impact Ireland`s attractiveness as a place to live, work and invest, and which can only be addressed through cross-Government collaboration. These conditions include infrastructure. Through Project Ireland 2040 and Housing for All, the Government is committed to substantial investment to overcome infrastructure bottlenecks that could hinder us from realising our ambitions for enterprise.

The development and ongoing implementation of the White Paper represents a whole of Government effort. This includes ongoing and forward-looking collaboration efforts across our enterprise agencies and with various Government Departments on key policy areas such as skills, innovation and decarbonisation, amongst others.

My Department is responsible for the development of consecutive two-year plans of cross-Government activity to implement the White Paper on Enterprise commitments. Last month, I published the first of these Implementation Plans, covering the period to the end of 2024. This identifies a portfolio of 40 key initiatives and projects across each of our seven priority objectives, a significant number of which focus on enhancing Ireland’s attractiveness as a location to do business, to invest and to trade. These include initiatives that will enhance foreign direct investment in our regions, transform our exporting base, enhance skills capacities and promote trade opportunities for Irish enterprise, amongst others. My Department will continue to collaborate with our enterprise agencies and other Government Departments in undertaking these efforts.