Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Regional development is a key element of Government's enterprise policy, as set out in the White Paper on Enterprise and is a key focus of the work of my Department. In that regard, IDA Ireland is committed to the pursuit of balanced, compact regional development and is targeting that at least half of all investments - that is 400 of 800 - from 2021 to 2024 to regional locations.

IDA has over 1,800 client companies within its portfolio employing 300,583 as at the end of 2023, with employment levels above 300,000 for the second consecutive year. 248 investments were won in 2023, 132 of which were secured across regional locations, representing 53% of all investments. Employment in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) companies now accounts for over 11% of the workforce. Additionally, my Department estimates that for every 10 jobs generated by FDI directly, another eight are created in the wider economy. This translates to over 540,000 direct and indirect jobs supported by FDI at the end of 2023, almost 20% of the workforce.

The total number of regional jobs now stands at 163,471. The Midlands Region saw the strongest level of growth in 2023, up 5.8% on 2022 levels. There was also growth in the Border Region (up 2.7%) and Midwest Region (up 2.6%) with the Southwest and Southeast Regions up by 1.2% and 1.4% respectively. Elsewhere, job numbers in IDA clients in the West Region was down by 1.8% whilst Dublin and the Mid East Region declined by 1.2% and 4.8% respectively.

Investment by IDA Ireland through its Regional Property Programme aims to ensure the supply of land, buildings and infrastructure in regional locations to remain competitive in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the regions. IDA Ireland continues to engage with current and prospective clients to promote Ireland as a location for their business and facilitates both virtual and in-person sites visits for companies. The use of digital platforms by IDA has contributed to an enhanced digital engagement with existing clients and in hosting e-visits with potential new investors.

The number of IDA-supported jobs and site visits in each county for each of the past three years are shown in the tables below. Site visit figures reflect both in-person and e-visits.

Table 1 IDA Supported Jobs by County, 2021-2023

Table 2 IDA Site visits by County, 2021-2023. Figures below reflect both in person and e-visits.

Note: Potential clients visiting Ireland may visit more than one county and may return to a location more than once. These figures represent individual visits and are therefore not indicative of the number of companies that have visited.

*visits to these counties include 3 one-to-many visits that took place during 2023.