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IDA Site Visits

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 18 July 2013

Thursday, 18 July 2013

Questions (294)

Michael McGrath

Question:

294. Deputy Michael McGrath asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in the context of IDA Ireland's Horizon 2020 strategy and target that 50% of investments will be located outside Dublin and Cork, if he will provide a breakdown of the number of IDA Ireland sponsored visits to Dublin which also visited Cork and the number of IDA Ireland sponsored visits to Cork which also visited Dublin since 2010. [36400/13]

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Written answers

I am informed by IDA Ireland that, since the beginning of 2010 to end of June 2013, there have been 667 IDA sponsored site visits by potential investors to Dublin and 135 such visits to Cork. I understand that some companies would have visited Dublin and Cork on the same itinerary or at different stages and over a number of itineraries, whilst others would have visited just Dublin and just Cork respectively. IDA has informed me that it does not have the facility to manipulate its data base to provide an instant cross reference of site visits for companies that have visited both Dublin and Cork.

A number of locations outside of Dublin and the main urban centres already facilitate the presence of a large number of multinational companies who have invested over the years, span multiple sectors and employ significant amounts of people. The primary opportunity for attracting FDI to such regional locations lies with existing clients and the potential further investment opportunities from this base as approximately 70% of all FDI investments won by IDA is from the existing client base.

I am determined to ensure that Ireland can continue to compete globally for foreign direct investment. In winning such investments, I am, however, mindful of the need to address the concerns that have been expressed to me by Deputies on all sides of the House about the relatively low level of site visits to certain regional locations. I have, accordingly, requested IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland to work with my Department so that we can explore what further initiatives we can take to ensure we have a better approach to enterprise development in regional locations. This exercise will complement the in-depth analysis of our FDI strategy which is currently being undertaken. This analysis, will take account of factors such as key trends emerging in FDI best practice internationally, Ireland’s strengths in attracting FDI, the changes to the EU’s State Aid rules that will be introduced in 2014 and our approach to regional development will inform the formulation of an appropriate FDI strategy for the period post 2014.

Table showing the number of IDA sponsored site visits to Dublin and Cork

County

2010

2011

2012

2013 (to end of June)

Cork

44

27

38

26

Dublin

197

150

196

124

Note: These figures are NOT indicative of the number of companies that visited the country. Companies can visit more than one region and more than one location within a county. Therefore, these figures indicate the number of individual site visits made to various sites around the country.

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