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Unemployment Levels

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 30 April 2014

Wednesday, 30 April 2014

Questions (275)

Dara Calleary

Question:

275. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the approach his Department and the Industrial Development Authority have in place to tackle the severe unemployment rates in the east Cork region; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19390/14]

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Written answers

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.

At present, there are 144 IDA Ireland client companies in Cork employing 27,354 people. IDA Ireland has strong relationships with all 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. The primary opportunity for regional locations is in respect of the existing client base and potential further investment opportunities from same. Approximately 70% of all FDI investments won by IDA Ireland is from the existing client base.

Cork has been particularly successful in attracting ICT companies with several recent announcements in the areas of software, customer support and shared services activities.

Currently, IDA Ireland positions Cork as being a strong cluster in Pharmaceuticals and Medical Technologies (Pfizer, Novatis, GSK, Janssen, Abbvie, Eli Lilly, Gilead, Pepsico, GE, Stryker, Gilead, Astellas among others). The success of Cork for attracting life sciences has seen the growth in associated support services such as experienced building firms and project managers, clean room providers, specialist recruitment agencies, tailored educational courses etc. This specialisation of services has increased the attractiveness of the cluster. IDA Ireland also has a number of suitably serviced strategic sites available for large scale development in the region.

The region also has a significant cluster of ICT companies such as Apple, Dell, McAfee, Trend Micro, EMC, VMware, among others. These global names have, not alone located in the South West but have reinvested in the area, offering confidence to new clients. The cluster of companies has led to the growth in suitably qualified individuals, experienced in working with multi-national corporations. The availability of new property solutions with a campus style design has also added to the attractiveness of the area.

IDA Ireland has also informed me that a new cluster is emerging in the region based around the marine and renewable technologies. The development of the Irish Maritime and Energy Resource Cluster (IMERC) will be a strong magnet of attraction for the South West. IMERC will harness and integrate diverse research and industry expertise through the development of the innovative cluster which incorporates the Beaufort Research Laboratory, The Irish National Maritime College and The Naval Service of Ireland. This is an area that IDA Ireland will increasingly focus on throughout the course of 2014 and beyond.

Finally, 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.

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