George Lawlor (Wexford, Labour)
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371. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the name and location of each IDA-supported company by county as of January 2025, in tabular form; the number of people employed in each company; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7860/25]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Investments by IDA Ireland client companies consistently generate highly skilled jobs throughout the country. Employment levels in the IDA Ireland client base have remained above 300,000 for three consecutive years, demonstrating a strong employment base that strategically positions the economy for further growth. The 2024 employment figure of 302,566 accounts for almost 11% of overall national employment. Job growth last year was recorded across the Modern Manufacturing and Traditional Manufacturing sectors, up 0.8% and 0.4% respectively, and the Business, Financial and Other Services sector, up 1.7%, whilst ICT saw numbers decline by 1.2%. This reinforces the critical importance of continued diversification across new and emerging sectors to drive sustained future growth insofar as Foreign Direct Investment is concerned.

In the face of ongoing global competition and a changing trade and investment landscape, Ireland has a strong platform for growth as reflected in the latest ABSEI (Annual Business Survey of Economic Impact) results. Expenditure within the economy by FDI companies increased by 6.5% to €38.6bn during 2023, and exports of €421bn marked a 7.3% increase year-on-year. In addition, capital expenditure of €13.2bn, represented the second highest level on record reflecting strong levels of investment activity. In tandem, in-house R&D investment by IDA Ireland clients during 2023 reached €9bn, marking an increase of more than 26% on the previous year. These figures demonstrate the significant commitment and contribution the FDI sector continues to make to the Irish economy.

However, we cannot afford to be complacent about FDI. It is essential that we safeguard and strengthen long-term investment in Ireland. Central to the IDA's new strategy which I launched last week, is an emphasis on partnering with existing clients to increase the competitiveness of their Irish operations as well as attracting new investment in the key future-orientated sectors of digitalisation and AI, semiconductors, health and sustainability. This strategy also reaffirms IDA’s focus on the regions and building on the excellent performance over the previous strategy, IDA is targeting 55% of investments to regional locations over the next 5 years.

The number of IDA client companies and jobs by county in 2024, is set out in the table below. IDA has 1,830 clients making it impractical to provide details of each in the body of this response and so the employment in IDA clients by county is provided in the table below at an aggregated county level. The attached table sets out the IDA supported companies in each county with their employment range. The data is taken from the Annual Employment Survey carried out by my Department in December 2024.