Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 17 Oct 2002

Vol. 555 No. 4

Written Answers. - Job Creation.

Martin Ferris

Question:

53 Mr. Ferris asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if, in view of the fact that of the 36,672 new jobs created in 2000 and 2001, only 7,299 or 19.9% were in the Border, midland and western region, she has satisfied herself that the commitments to job creation in the BMW region will be met in view of the fact that the national development plan promised to ensure that at least 50% of all new jobs from green field projects would be in that region. [18678/02]

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Ms Harney)

Under the national development plan IDA Ireland is fully committed to achieving a target of 50% of all new jobs from greenfield projects over the 2000-06 period, to be located in the Objective One region. IDA Ireland has further committed itself to the task of achieving 50% of all new greenfield jobs in the Objective One region over the 2000-03 period.

The underlying process of creating new greenfield jobs in the Objective One Region is initiated with first time site visits by overseas investors to the Objective One region. Commencing in 2000, 50% of all first time site visits handled by IDA Ireland have been directed to the Objective One region. Following on from this, the expectation is that 50% of all new greenfield jobs created will be achieved in the Objective One region. Typically, new jobs on the ground come on stream within three to five years of approval. It is understood that the figures of 36,672 and 7,299 referred to in the question are derived from the Forfás employment survey on new job gains, which include, but are not restricted to, new greenfield jobs.

Substantial progress towards the IDA target has been achieved to date. In 1999, prior to the start of the current NDP, about 25% of all new greenfield jobs were locating in the Objective One region. In 2000 and 2001, this rose to 45% and 42% respectively. Preliminary data for the first half of 2002 indicates that a similar outturn for the year is a good possibility.

Achievement of this target over the period of the NDP is heavily dependent on a number of factors, which are outside IDA Ireland's control, including the following, the speed of the roll out of infrastructure development in the Objective One region relative to the time scale set out in the new NDP, short to medium-term developments in the world economy which can heavily influence overall international flows of mobile investment.

Obviously in this context the current poor economic conditions and relatively slow progress on the infrastructure front makes achieving the target particularly difficult. However, despite these difficult conditions on both the global economic and infrastructure fronts, strong progress towards the 50% target is being made, and the share of new greenfield projects going to the Objective One region is substantially higher than was the case prior to the current NDP.