I am informed by IDA Ireland that in the three year period 2011 to 2013 inclusive, there has been a total of 68 IDA sponsored site visits by potential investors to County Galway. Details of the number of site visits paid in each of the years in question is set out in the following tabular statement. However, for reasons of client confidentiality and commercial sensitivity, details of such visits are provided on a county by county basis only.
County Galway has had particular success in recent years in terms of attracting inward investment particularly in the areas of Medical Technologies and ICT. At present there are 60 IDA Ireland client companies in Galway City and County employing over 13,600 people in full and part time employment. In the three year period from 2011 to 2013, almost 4,000 new jobs were created in IDA Ireland client companies in County Galway. Details of the number of jobs created in each of the three years is set out in the following tabular statement.
As a result of this inward investment, significant scale and capability has been established underpinning existing industry clusters such as the Medical Technologies cluster in Galway. The emphasis for IDA Ireland is to continue to engage the existing base of multinationals in Galway and the West Region as a whole to ensure opportunities are realised in respect of job retention, creation and growth but with a particular focus on driving the transformation agenda within the existing client base making them more competitive in a global context thus ensuring ongoing operational sustainability. Approximately 70% of all FDI won on an annual basis comes from the existing client base.
Under the Action Plan for Jobs 2014, IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland are working with my Department to develop a framework for a Regional Enterprise Strategy to better integrate the efforts of enterprise agencies and the other regional stakeholders in building enterprise based on sustainable competitive advantage of the region. This exercise will complement the in-depth analysis of our FDI strategy which is currently being undertaken by Forfás and which will take account of factors such as key trends emerging in FDI best practice internationally, Ireland's strengths in attracting FDI and any changes to the EU's State Aid Rules, which will come into effect on 1 July 2014. The results of these two exercises will form the basis of IDA Ireland's strategy from 2015 onwards.
Table 1 showing the number of IDA sponsored site visits by potential Investors to County Galway (incl. Galway City) in each of the years 2011, 2012 and 2013
|
Year
|
2011
|
2012
|
2013
|
|
Number of site visits
|
35
|
18
|
15
|
Table 2 showing the number of new jobs created in IDA Ireland client companies in County Galway (incl. Galway City) in each of the 3 years 2011, 2012 and 2013.
|
Year
|
2011
|
2012
|
2013
|
|
Number of new jobs created
|
1,921
|
923
|
1,098
|
