Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 19 February 2014
114. Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if there any indications from the Industrial Development Agency or Enterprise Ireland of job investments in the Arklow/south Wicklow area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8515/14]
View answerIDA Ireland’s primary responsibility is to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) to Ireland and, in the case of Enterprise Ireland, to support indigenous industry.
At present, there are 19 IDA supported companies in Co. Wicklow employing 2,443 people. IDA Ireland has strong relationships with these companies and works closely with them to ensure their long term sustainability and to encourage their growth, development and continuing re-investment in their sites. Wicklow is part of the East Region together with the counties Dublin, Kildare and Meath. The region as a whole has been particularly successful in attracting FDI with 623 IDA supported companies employing 80,152 people in the region.
Enterprise Ireland currently have 177 client companies in Co. Wicklow employing in excess of 3,300 people. In 2013 Enterprise Ireland paid over €2 million to clients based in Co. Wicklow. To date in 2014 over €23,000 has been paid to County Wicklow based companies by the Agency.
The Agency have assured me that they will continue to support new High Potential Start-Ups in County Wicklow in 2014 as well as continuing to support their established clients using the various programmes under their remit.
A core focus for Enterprise Ireland is to support the internationalisation of indigenous companies in County Wicklow. This involves working with both existing clients and new companies on a one to one confidential basis and on a group basis to help them grow internationally.
There are many complex factors influencing investor location decision-making such as the increasing preference of investors globally for cities of scale with 1 million plus population, significant challenges from lower cost locations in the UK and Eastern Europe and attractive regional aid.
In order to address the lack of investment in certain regional locations, I have 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 from 2015 onwards.
Last year the Department of Finance produced improved employment forecasts for 2014. We have now moved from a situation where the private sector was losing over 7,000 jobs per month before this Government came to office, to the present situation where it is creating 5,000 jobs per month.
While these are very encouraging signs for the economy, we must continue to build on this progress and support further job creation. The 2014 Action Plan for jobs is due to be published shortly. This year’s Plan will build on the success of 2012 and 2013 and will once again set out a series of ambitious commitments on the part of the Government to support job creation and retention.
