The role of Government is to create the conditions where enterprise, entrepreneurship and innovation can flourish and quality employment opportunities can be grown and maintained. Two Industrial Development agencies under the aegis of my Department, IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland, together with the relevant County Enterprise Boards (CEBs) support enterprise development in the regions in question.
The primary role of IDA Ireland is the attraction of high quality Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to Ireland. An integral and fundamental element of this role is the agency's mandate to promote sustainable and balanced regional development. One of the high level goals of IDA's strategy "Horizon 2020 “ is that in the period to 2014, 50% of new FDI projects will be located outside of Dublin and Cork. To date in 2011, of the ten investments announced, four are located outside of Dublin and Cork. Three of these are located in the West Region and one in the Midlands. These announcements alone have the potential to create 190 jobs.
The marketing of individual areas for FDI and jobs is a day-to-day operational matter for the agency. While I may give general policy directives to the agency, I am precluded under the Industrial Development Acts from giving directives regarding individual undertakings or from giving preference to one area over others. However, I can say that the agency has invested heavily in the provision of property solutions tailored to meet the needs of investors and has developed a network of high-quality Business Parks in locations throughout both regions.
Considerable success has been achieved in attracting high quality investment to both regions. At present, there are a total of 115 IDA supported companies employing over 18,000 people between both regions. The key sectors of focus are life sciences, information and communications technologies and high value services activities. IDA has a good pipeline for 2011 and is hopeful of securing further investments across a number of locations.
Enterprise Ireland has a wide range of programmes to address the multi-disciplinary demands of entrepreneurship and the diversity of business types. The agency supports companies to achieve productivity gains, internationalisation and export growth. It assists with research and development, management skills acquisition, market information and seed and venture capital. Between the two regions, the agency has almost 700 clients employing over 17,000 people. In 2010, Enterprise Ireland-assisted companies created 457 new full-time jobs in the Midlands region and 786 in the West. In addition, over €23m was approved for the agency's client companies in the two regions.
During 2010, the CEBs in the two regions paid out over €2.3m in grant assistance to 207 clients. Of this, €1.1m was paid out to 101 client companies in the Midlands Region comprising counties Laois, Offaly, Longford and Westmeath. €1.2m was paid out to 106 client companies in counties Galway, Mayo and Roscommon which make up the West Region. This year, the CEBs are continuing to support enterprise development through the provision of both direct financial assistance (in the form of capital, feasibility and employment grants) and through indirect or "soft support" assistance such as management development, capability support and the development and delivery of activities to highlight and promote enterprise.
I am satisfied that the policies and initiatives being pursued by the Industrial Development agencies and the County Enterprise Boards will continue to bring about industrial development and employment opportunities for the regions.