Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent)
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242. To ask the Minister for Finance to detail any information on the role of the 213 FY2022 ISIF investments in advancing balanced regional development, and a broad commentary on whether the fund’s Irish investments have an over 30% concentration in Dublin and thus work against current policy aspirations towards balanced regional development. [42805/24]

Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent)
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243. To ask the Minister for Finance with respect to the 42,454 jobs supported by ISIF investments in FY2022, to detail the basis for this calculation, the nature of the jobs and locations. [42806/24]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 242 and 243 together.

The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA have informed me that In June 2022, the revised ISIF Impact Strategy was launched, with a focus on four key investment themes: climate, housing and enabling investments, scaling indigenous businesses, and food and agriculture. A particular focus includes initiatives with an ambition to deploy capital in a targeted and commercial manner addressing Ireland’s key strategic challenges and in priority areas such as regional development, climate change and female entrepreneurship.

In addition, in June 2022, ISIF launched a €500m city-specific investment programme aimed at unlocking the economic potential of Ireland’s 5 regional cities: Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford, and Kilkenny. At year-end 2023, €130m has been committed under this regional investment programme which includes a €66m investment in Limerick Opera.

In relation to regional development and the concentration of ISIF’s investments in Dublin, ISIF reports annually against its regional economic impact in the NTMA Annual Report (please refer to page 30 in the 2023 Annual report - see link at bottom of response). In line with their strategy, ISIF continues to review and assess various opportunities outside the Dublin area that align with the ISIF double bottom line legislative mandate.

With respect to the 42,454 jobs supported by ISIF investments in FY2022, ISIF issue an annual economic impact survey to investees within the Irish Portfolio. Via this survey, data on the direct level of employment supported by each company is collected. In 2022, the level of direct jobs supported was 27,166. In line with standard impact reporting (GRI 203: Indirect Economic Impacts 2016), ISIF apply an indirect multiplier to this direct data to calculate total jobs supported. Multipliers are based on CSO input-output tables for the Irish economy and capture the jobs supported via supply chain activity for each sector. ISIF adopt a conservative approach to estimating the total level of jobs supported and do not include induced jobs (jobs supported by spending by direct and indirect employees in the economy).

These jobs span a range of sectors of the Irish economy; transportation, construction, agriculture, and the technology sector were the most prominent in 2022. ISIF also collect data on whether the jobs are temporary or permanent; 96% of direct jobs noted in the 2022 survey were permanent.

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