Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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546.To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of IDA site visits to County Wexford made in the past 18 months, in tabular form; the results to date of any such visits; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31286/24]

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 focus of the work of my Department and that of its enterprise agencies. In that regard, under its current strategy, Driving Recovery and Sustainable Growth 2021-2024, IDA Ireland is targeting at least half of all investments to regional locations.

IDA’s strategy also outlines objectives for delivery of property solutions across the regions. The IDA’s Regional Property Programme ensures the continued supply of land, buildings and infrastructure in regional locations to meet the needs of current and prospective clients of IDA, Enterprise Ireland and the Local Enterprise Offices, as the timely provision of appropriate, cost-effective property and infrastructure solutions can be a key factor in investment decisions.

The IDA also partners with the private sector and Local Authorities to deliver buildings in key locations.

Insofar as Wexford is concerned, IDA's strategy outlined that the agency would seek out a partnership with Wexford County Council for the delivery of an advance planning permit for an Advanced Building Solution (ABS) to advance the location from an attractiveness perspective. In this regard, IDA and Wexford County Council signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the delivery of an advanced planning permit at lands in Enniscorthy Technology Park in February 2024. As part of the next stage, a procurement process will be undertaken to identify a suitably qualified design team for the project.

There were 2 site visits to County Wexford in 2023 and 5 in 2022, all in person visits. There were no site visits in the first quarter of this year. Figures for Q2 are being collated and verified and will be available next month. As regards such visits, I am advised that potential clients visiting Ireland may visit more than one county and may return to a location more than once. Thus, the foregoing figures represent individual visits and are therefore not indicative of the number of companies that have visited.

Table: Site Visits to County Wexford in the past 18 months

Finally, I should note that employment in IDA client companies in County Wexford has increased by 1,160 between 2015 and 2023 and that there were 3,746 people employed across 26 IDA client companies in the county at the end of 2023.