Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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189. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will provide details of the scale of capital investment required in serviced sites, utilities and digital infrastructure to make Ireland competitive in attracting semiconductor fabrication plants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54156/25]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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As identified in Silicon Island-Ireland's National Semiconductor Strategy, Government is acutely aware of the strategic imperative to position Ireland as a competitive location for semiconductor fabrication facilities, with chips being critical to global supply chains and national economic resilience. Semiconductor fabrication plants, or “fabs”, require large sites due to their significant land use and the need for expansion space. To this end, and in a challenging, competitive and uncertain global environment, the provision of plan-led, high-specification fully serviceable land-banks with a full array of essential services and utilities in place will be a key aspect of individual company investment decisions. In this regard, Ireland’s ability to compete for and win significant investments of scale in this sector is dependent on the ready availability of such appropriate, innovative and cost-competitive sites.

The establishment of such advanced manufacturing operations requires substantial capital investment across several key infrastructure domains. The Programme for Government outlines a policy aim of reviewing and considering expansion of the IDA Ireland land-bank, including consideration of new advanced manufacturing facilities in strategic, regional locations, and developing a small number of strategically important next generation sites.

Additionally, IDA Ireland is dedicated to acquiring new land-banks and strategic sites to support future projects across all key sectors. As set out in its strategy “Adapt Intelligently 2025-2029”, IDA Ireland has identified clear opportunities for Ireland to win investment in key growth areas such as digitalisation and AI, semiconductors, health and sustainability. To support this ambition, the Agency will continue to ensure appropriate property solutions with the commensurate development potential are available to enterprise agency clients and to maximise regional opportunities.

Substantial cross-Government and inter-agency collaboration will be required to ensure the successful delivery of these next generation sites. Accordingly, IDA Ireland is working with my Department and other Government partners, including the utility providers, to develop sites of strategic scale and importance to accommodate manufacturing investments from the sector. Such a plan-led approach provides more certainty to investors and de-risks decisions making Ireland a more attractive location for competitive mobile large-scale investments. This is an ambitious initiative which will take several years to complete.

The Government recognises that quality physical infrastructure, such as utilities and digital infrastructure, are essential to ensure the economy has the capacity to achieve sustainable, long-term growth and plays a key role in boosting productivity and creating high-value employment. The provision of this essential physical infrastructure is also key to ensuring that enterprises in Ireland have the certainty they require to underpin investment decisions. Increasing the State’s capacity to deliver infrastructure is one of the six themes in the Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity published by Government on 10 September.

IDA Ireland is working to identify suitable sites for this purpose. My Department will work in partnership with the Agency to implement this plan, building sustainable, long-term growth, employment and prosperity in the industries of the future. To this end, in my Budget announcement this week, I indicated that an additional sum of €100m is being allocated from my Department's "NDP" allocation for the Next Generation Sites initiative to prepare strategic, serviced locations for future FDI. This investment will augment the ongoing IDA property investments in new and existing sites across its portfolio as outlined in its new Strategy, including in cooperation with Local Authorities. Such sites are also available to Irish-Owned Enterprise Ireland clients.