Written answers
Thursday, 19 June 2025
Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment
Industrial Development
Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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262. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of IDA-hosted visits to each city in the State in each of the past 20 years, in tabular form. [33364/25]
Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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263. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of IDA-hosted visits to each county in each of the past 20 years, in tabular form. [33365/25]
Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Question number 263 and Question number 262 together.
Regional development is a key element of Government's enterprise policy and is a key focus of the work of my Department and its agencies. In that regard, regional development is a strategic imperative for the IDA. IDA is committed to the pursuit of balanced, compact regional development and is targeting 550 of a total target of 1,000 investments to regional locations under its new strategy, Adapt Intelligently: A Strategy for Sustainable Growth and Innovation 2025-29.
The availability of suitable property and strategic sites is a critical component of the regional value proposition and can be the key differentiator in investment decisions in the regions from both new and existing clients as well as clients of Enterprise Ireland and the LEOs. In this regard, IDA Ireland’s Regional Property Programme 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 also maintains a focus on acquisition of new landbanks and strategic sites to future-proof the ability of the property portfolio in regional locations to support the project pipeline.
Data on site visits facilitated by IDA is available on a county basis only. The IDA also highlighted to me that site visits are only one measure in a company’s interest in particular location and may not necessarily be a true measure of the overall level of foreign direct investment (FDI) activity in a region or county. The level of FDI may be better gauged by reference to the IDA’s Annual Employment Survey results which captures jobs created the agency’s client companies across regions.
In addition, potential clients visiting Ireland may visit more than one county and may return to a location more than once. The figures provided below represent individual visits and are therefore not necessarily indicative of the number of companies that have visited.
I would also highlight that the final decision on where to locate an investment is always decided by the client and not by IDA Ireland and can take many years to convert from initial site visit to final project proposal.
The table below outlines the number of site visits by county over the past 20 years.
Site Visits by County 2005 - 2024
County | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carlow | 7 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 9 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 6 |
| Cavan | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Clare | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 9 | 7 | 15 | 14 | 5 | 9 | 12 | 18 | 22 | 13 | 28 | 16 | 20 | 22 | 40 | 21 |
| Cork | 35 | 16 | 27 | 41 | 29 | 44 | 27 | 38 | 31 | 30 | 48 | 49 | 51 | 61 | 68 | 30 | 44 | 45 | 39 | 41 |
| Donegal | 4 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 8 | 12 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 2 |
| Dublin | 71 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 90 | 197 | 150 | 196 | 180 | 205 | 242 | 284 | 327 | 269 | 284 | 121 | 153 | 201 | 173 | 221 |
| Galway | 14 | 20 | 15 | 14 | 22 | 41 | 35 | 18 | 15 | 19 | 41 | 42 | 62 | 54 | 46 | 21 | 31 | 40 | 38 | 34 |
| Kerry | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 9 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 8 | 6 |
| Kildare | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 8 | 14 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 5 |
| Kilkenny | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 10 | 6 | 5 | 13 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 10 | 8 |
| Laois | 7 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 2 |
| Leitrim | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Limerick | 19 | 24 | 35 | 9 | 18 | 38 | 40 | 30 | 23 | 22 | 40 | 49 | 42 | 35 | 57 | 26 | 37 | 48 | 52 | 38 |
| Longford | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 2 |
| Louth | 47 | 47 | 24 | 23 | 28 | 25 | 26 | 12 | 4 | 10 | 20 | 24 | 22 | 20 | 40 | 14 | 10 | 16 | 11 | 7 |
| Mayo | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Meath | 12 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Monaghan | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| Offaly | 7 | 1 | 4 | 11 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 |
| Roscommon | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 7 |
| Sligo | 6 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 12 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 7 | 15 | 20 | 18 | 15 | 29 | 9 | 6 | 10 | 7 | 8 |
| Tipperary | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 12 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 12 | 9 | 10 | 2 |
| Waterford | 10 | 12 | 9 | 12 | 8 | 11 | 11 | 26 | 14 | 11 | 31 | 17 | 11 | 21 | 18 | 9 | 8 | 12 | 18 | 18 |
| Westmeath | 14 | 16 | 18 | 18 | 14 | 22 | 15 | 7 | 9 | 12 | 28 | 36 | 42 | 22 | 22 | 14 | 20 | 20 | 13 | 18 |
| Wexford | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 6 |
| Wicklow | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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264. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of IDA jobs in each county in each of the past 20 years in tabular form. [33366/25]
Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Regional development is a key element of Government's enterprise policy and is a key focus of the work of my Department and its agencies. In that regard, regional development is a strategic imperative for the IDA and IDA is committed to the pursuit of balanced, compact regional development and is targeting 550 of a total target of 1,000 investments to regional locations under its new strategy, Adapt Intelligently: A Strategy for Sustainable Growth and Innovation 2025-29.
The IDA delivered strong regional performance in 2024. There were 137 investments outside of Dublin, representing 59% of total investments. The total number of regional jobs now stands at 165,484. The Mid-West Region saw the strongest level of growth, up 3.1%. There was growth in the Border Region (up 2.2%) Southeast Region (up 2.3%) Dublin Region (up 0.07%) and the West Region up (0.15%). Elsewhere, the Southwest Region was down by 0.2% whilst the Mideast and the Midlands regions declined by 3.3% and 0.45% respectively.
The table attached provides the number of IDA jobs in each country in each of the past 20 years.
">Regional Employment 2005-24
Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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265. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of WTE positions within the IDA assigned to each county in the State in each of the past 20 years, including job titles and grades, in tabular form. [33367/25]
Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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It has not been possible to compile the requested information in the time available.
The information requested is currently being collated by my Department and will be forwarded directly to the Deputy as soon as it is finalised.
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