Joe Cooney (Clare, Fine Gael)
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369. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of foreign direct investment (FDI) jobs in counties Clare, Galway and Limerick in the years 2022, 2023 and 2024, in tabular form; the number of FDI jobs created and lost respectively in counties Clare, Galway and Limerick in the same years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34426/25]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Investments by IDA Ireland client companies consistently generate highly skilled jobs nationwide. IDA Ireland’s portfolio now comprises more than 1,800 clients across a diverse range of sectors in every county in Ireland. Employment levels within the FDI sector remain above 300,000 for the third consecutive year. The 2024 employment figure of 302,566 represented a slight increase (0.2%) in client employment over 2023 and accounted for 10.8% of overall national employment. Job growth was recorded in Modern Manufacturing and Traditional Manufacturing, up 0.8% and 0.4% respectively. Business, Financial and Other Services also reported an increase - 1.7% - whilst ICT saw numbers decline by 1.2%, reinforcing the critical importance of continued diversification across new and emerging sectors to drive sustained future growth.

I should also highlight that regional development continues to be a key element of Government's enterprise policy and is a key focus of the work of my Department and our agencies, including the IDA. In this regard, the IDA delivered strong regional performance in 2024. There were 137 investments outside of Dublin, representing 59% of total investments and 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 also 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 new IDA Ireland Strategy "Adapt Intelligently: A Strategy for Sustainable Growth and Innovation 2025-29" continues to prioritise growth and transformation through innovation, digitalisation, talent development and sustainability across key strategic sectors as well as attraction of new investment in the key future-orientated sectors of digitalisation and AI, semiconductors, health, and sustainability. Fundamental to driving continued growth is a focus on competitiveness, agile policies, and delivery of national infrastructure. The strategy reaffirms IDA’s continued focus on the regions and IDA is targeting 55% of investments to regional locations (550 of 1,000 over the lifetime of the Strategy).

The total number of IDA-supported jobs and jobs created and lost in Clare, Limerick and Galway from 2022-2024, is set out in the table below: