Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 November 2004
137 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of new jobs announced during 2003 from new investments or expansion of IDA Ireland backed plants; the expected final level of announcements during 2004; the steps that are being taken to promote job creation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28370/04]
View answerIDA Ireland is the agency with statutory responsibility for the attraction of foreign direct investment to Ireland, including its regions and areas. In 2003, a total of 32 green field and expansion job creation projects were announced by IDA Ireland. These projects have a projected total job content of nearly 5,600 and were achieved against a background where there were fewer companies actively seeking to invest overseas and consequently less companies visiting Ireland.
As the ultimate decision regarding where to locate a project, including what areas to visit as potential locations are taken by overseas investors it is difficult to predict the exact number of IDA Ireland supported project announcements that might be made in 2004. However I am optimistic about the likely results for 2004, particularly given the track record IDA Ireland has in attracting sustainable overseas investment to the country.
According to UNCTAD Ireland is now sixth in the world as a location for foreign direct investment and we won more foreign investment than Britain or Germany last year. Despite the fact that foreign direct investment flows around the world fell by 18% last year, the inflow of $25.5 billion to Ireland was up slightly on 2002. This accounted for 9% of total flows into the EU, even though Ireland had only 1% of the population of the pre-enlargement EU.
This is a remarkable achievement for a small country like ours, which has to compete not alone with third countries which are much more competitive nowadays for the more basic manufacturing type investment but also with more advanced economies such as Britain and Germany which are very attractive locations for higher value knowledge based overseas operations.
At this point, it is expected there will be a broadly similar employment outcome in 2004vis-à-vis 2003 in respect of IDA Ireland client companies.
