Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 29 June 2023
42. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will provide an update on efforts being made by his Department, the IDA and Enterprise Ireland to attract new businesses to County Clare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31312/23]
View answerIDA’s strategy, Driving Recovery & Sustainable Growth 2021-2024, has been developed in the context of the Government’s National Economic Plan. It identifies the opportunities for sustainable growth among IDA’s established base of clients through a focus on transformative investments to increase the productivity of Irish operations and their workforce through RD&I, digitalisation, training, and actions on sustainability. The strategy is delivered through a focus on five pillars: Growth, Transformation, Regions, Sustainability, and Impact.
Despite the difficult global economic environment, over 24,000 net new jobs were created in IDA supported client companies in 2022, bringing the numbers directly employed in the multinational sector in Ireland to over 300,000 for the first time ever. Furthermore, regional employment stands at 163,653 an increase of 7% on 2021 with employment in IDA client companies growing in every region of the country, with the Mid-West region showing growth of 3.6% over the previous year.
Accordingly, regional development remains a top priority for my Department and for IDA Ireland, and as part of IDA Ireland’s strategy, half of all investments to the end of 2024 are to go to regional locations outside Dublin. In this regard, IDA Ireland won 242 investments in 2022 of which 52%, or 127 projects, went to regional locations. This strong growth in regional investment is supported by IDA Ireland’s Regional Property Programme.
The Mid-West Region comprises Limerick and Tipperary as well as Clare and there are 154 IDA client companies in the Region, employing 26,004 people. The FDI performance has been consistent over the past five years with employment among IDA clients increasing by 22%. Counties in the Mid-West also benefit hugely from the direct and indirect employment generated by IDA client companies located in other bordering regions. The Mid-West has a significant ecosystem of well-established companies across Technology, Life Sciences, International Financial Services and Engineering & Industrial Technologies and has also won significant investment in the Food and the Film sub-sectors.
Employment in Enterprise Ireland (EI) client companies increased by 6% in 2022 and now stands at 218,178 with 68% of jobs now outside Dublin. EI has approximately 100 client companies in County Clare, employing 5,266 people across a broad number of sectors including Aviation; Engineering; Electronics & Internationally Traded Services. EI offer a broad range of supports to start-up and scaling client companies, including grant aid and programmatic support in a number of key strategic areas including Leadership; Marketing/Export Sales; Lean; Green and Digitalisation.
EI start-up supports include the New Frontiers Programmes delivered in TUS Mid-West in Limerick and the Atlantic Technological University in Galway, where entrepreneurs are supported to develop a minimally viable product, unique selling points; and route to market; along with the development of a business plan to source possible funding opportunities. EI also provide a Pre-Seed Fund that provides up to €100k per project through a competitive call to eligible promoters. Successful projects which progress to the High Potential Start-Up category are eligible for equity seed funding in the region of €250k to €300k matched private funding against a business plan to scale and grow their business.
EI works closely with Clare LEO to build a pipeline of companies in the Manufacturing and Internationally Traded Services sectors who have ambition to scale and grow their export markets. EI has supported two strategic projects in Clare through the Regional Enterprise Development Fund over recent years – the Future Mobility Campus Ireland (FMCI) based in Shannon and development of the Clare Maritime Economic Zone (Clare MEZ) on the marina in Kilrush. A total of €8.4m has been approved for these projects which seek to stimulate the creation of two new sectors and attract new and emerging businesses to Clare.
EI has been engaged with the Shannon Estuary Task Force and the Clare Economic Task Force, working with the key stakeholders to help drive economic growth in the county and region, and also works closely with the team in Shannon Group and Shannon & Ennis Chambers to run joint initiatives to support industry in the county.
