Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 July 2012
286 Deputy Patrick O’Donovan asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of visits carried out to County Limerick and the locations by the Industrial Development Authority and Enterprise Ireland in the period 2002 to 2012; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35988/12]
View answerI have been informed by IDA Ireland that data in relation to site visits is maintained on a county by county basis only. The Agency has indicated to me that over the period 2003 to date there have been 231 IDA sponsored site visits by potential investors to Limerick City and County. Details of the number of such visits in each of the years in question are set out in the following tabular statement. Enterprise Ireland, who deal with indigenous industry, do not arrange similar type promotional visits.
There are 44 IDA Ireland supported companies in Limerick, City and County employing over 6,000 people. Enterprise Ireland works with over 260 clients in Limerick City and County who employ 6,175 full time employees.
One of the high level goals in IDA's Strategy "Horizon 2020" is a commitment that in the period 2012 to 2014, 50% of all Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) will be located outside of Dublin and Cork. In seeking to meet this target within the context of securing high quality FDI for Ireland, IDA Ireland has pointed out that the concept of scale is crucial. Leading global corporations require a significant population pool, access to qualified talent, world standard physical and digital infrastructure coupled with the availability of sophisticated professional and business support services. Ireland has only one Metro Region, the Greater Dublin area, so, in order to achieve economic regional development, IDA prioritises the marketing of Gateway locations within each Region as the locations of critical mass (i.e. sufficient scale of population, skills, infrastructure, companies, business services etc.) and highlights the opportunities provided by Hub locations which are within commuting distances of these Gateways. IDA also promotes other locations as part of its marketing efforts in response to specific client requirements.
Typically, a company is shown three or four locations within a Gateway Economic Region that can meet its requirements and, in certain cases, other locations are visited on an opportunistic basis. In selecting locations to market to client companies, IDA Ireland endeavours to include locations which have been affected by closures/job losses. Whilst IDA Ireland seeks to influence the selection of a location, the final decision on where to locate is taken in all cases by the investor.
Enterprise Ireland's activities are focussed on the creation of new jobs through supporting entrepreneurs setting up new High Potential Start-Up Companies, the retention and creation of jobs in existing companies, and in enhancing the innovation capability of Ireland at a national and regional level through support of research in companies and third level institutions.
|
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
2012 to date |
|
|
Number of Site Visits |
15 |
21 |
19 |
24 |
35 |
9 |
18 |
38 |
40 |
12 |
