Joanna Byrne (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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317. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the actions he will take in collaboration with the Industrial Development Agency and Enterprise Ireland to support new businesses and jobs in County Louth; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13830/25]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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The Mid-East Region, comprising counties Kildare, Louth, Meath, and Wicklow has a well-established ecosystem of companies across Technology, Life Sciences, International Financial Services, Engineering & Industrial Technologies and Food & Film. There are 121 IDA client companies operating in the region, collectively employing 20,470 people and 810 EI Client companies employing 28,863 people. Moreover, at the end of 2024, there were 38 IDA client companies in County Louth employing 4,111 people, and 184 EI client companies employing 6,748 people.

Both Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland have both recently published new strategies which will direct the focus of the agencies over the coming 5-year period with a focus on regional development.

IDA Ireland's strategy, Adapt Intelligently: A Strategy for Sustainable Growth and Innovation, includes an emphasis on partnering with the existing 1,800 clients, employing over 300,000 people across the country, to strengthen long-term investment in Ireland. In practical terms, this means the IDA is committed to supporting existing clients to increase the competitiveness of their Irish operations through investment in innovation, digitalisation, talent development and sustainability to position their operations here to capture new growth opportunities. This is both important in its own right but also for so many SMEs that are in the FDI community’s supply chains. The IDA will also broaden the impact of FDI working with Enterprise Ireland on enhancing supply and innovation links with Irish-based enterprises.

The IDA strategy also includes objectives to drive sustainable change; scale cutting-edge innovation and maximise regional opportunities with an ambition to win 1,000 investments, 550 in regional locations.

Central to IDA’s ambition to maximise regional opportunities is the continued delivery of the Agency’s Property Programme and the development of next generation strategic sites for companies locating significant operations here, including in County Louth. The availability of suitable property and strategic sites remains a critical component of the regional value proposition and to the winning of investments into the regions from both new name clients and from the existing client base. To this end, IDA’s property strategy aims to address regional market failure through investment in enterprise-focused property solutions that meet the needs of MNCs and indigenous clients in support of winning investments.

IDA Ireland also partners with Local Authorities for the delivery of advance planning permits in regional locations and invests in significant infrastructure projects across the portfolio of Business and Technology Parks responding to evolving company needs. IDA is maintaining a focus on the acquisition of new landbanks and strategic sites to future proof the ability of the property portfolio in regional locations to support the project pipeline. This targeted forward-planning is vital to provide certainty and ensure Ireland has a competitive offering that meets the evolving needs of IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland clients.

In this regard, IDA will progress 23 building projects across 21 locations in 8 regions over the next 5 years, including completion of a building in Drogheda that is at the planning stage and a new technology building in Dundalk. IDA also proposes to progress delivery of up to three next generation sites under the strategy.

Enterprise Ireland’s strategy Delivering for Ireland, Leading Globally, 2025-2029, outlines the organisation’s aims and ambitions for the Irish enterprise base and its purpose to ‘Accelerate Sustainable Irish Business’. Enterprise Ireland works with over 4,000 Irish-owned businesses to support them to start, compete, innovate and scale, and create jobs in towns and communities across Ireland.

The Agency’s ambition over the next five years is to support Irish exporting companies to make an even greater contribution to the Irish economy through international growth and nationwide employment, with a long-term ambition that exporting Irish companies become the primary driver of the Irish economy. The new strategy sets out the four strategic objectives:

• Start - Enhance the pipeline of innovative and scalable start-ups with a target to support 1,000 new start-ups over the five-year period, from 2025 to 2029.
• Compete - Support productivity, founded on sustainability, innovation, digitalisation, operational efficiency, and strong leadership and capabilities.
• Scale - Increase the number of world-leading Irish companies.
• Connect - To support an enhanced, internationally competitive, and interconnected enterprise and innovation ecosystem that fosters start-ups, and drives enterprise growth and investment.