The Succeed in Ireland Initiative, which was launched in March 2012, was one of the key Q1 commitments in the Action Plan for Jobs 2012. The initiative aims to create 5,000 jobs over five years. The project is being administered by Connect Ireland, a subsidiary of the Taxback Group, under a contract with IDA Ireland. The scheme is designed to complement, not compete with, the work of IDA Ireland.
This is a completely new and unique initiative, which uses “referral marketing” techniques in the area of foreign direct investment. Referral marketing is being used by IDA Ireland for the first time to generate leads and create sustainable employment and to open up an alternative avenue to attract new companies, mainly from the SME sector, to set up in Ireland for the first time. The initiative provides for the payment of a “finder’s fee” to anybody who acts as an “introducer” to a foreign company which subsequently establishes an internationally traded service in Ireland. The reward scheme provides that IDA Ireland will pay up to €4,000, ex VAT, per sustainable job created. A sustainable job is defined as a job that has been in place for two years. The aim of the initiative is to generate projects from small and medium sized enterprises, who may not be reached through IDA Ireland’s marketing and networking structure, and ideally have the potential for rapid international growth.
The initiative, which is still in a pilot phase, focuses on key sectors, identified in consultation with IDA, which offer the most positive opportunities for Ireland, based on infrastructure and skills availability - high end manufacturing, global services, including financial services, and research development and innovation - and aims to deliver jobs into the regions. Connect Ireland has funded a significant marketing campaign to raise awareness of the initiative.
As the initiative is still in the pilot phase, its workings are under constant review by both IDA Ireland and officials of my Department. There is a constant level of engagement at very senior level between my Department, IDA Ireland and Connect Ireland. An evaluation of the scheme will be carried out in the first quarter of 2014 and following completion of that evaluation, I will bring a further memorandum to Government on the Initiative. To date, 298 jobs have been announced from 11 approved projects.
