Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 18 October 2023
131. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment for a breakdown of the €27 million allocated to IDA Ireland in Budget 2024 to accelerate its Regional Property and Enterprise Grants Programmes. [45599/23]
View answerAs part of my Department's Estimates negotiations, I secured an increase of €27m on 2023 "REV" levels of €177.3m in capital spending for the IDA in respect of grants to industry and the agency’s property programme bringing the total Exchequer allocation to for 2024 €204.3m. My Department will now work with the IDA on the allocation of the €27m across these budget lines.
While Ireland’s long-standing track record as a resilient, stable and innovative location in which to do business provides a strong foundation which to build in the period ahead, it is clear that the investment decisions made by the FDI base in Ireland will be influenced by IDA’s targeted support, and critically, by the value proposition of different jurisdictions. In such an uncertain environment, it is critical that IDA continue to partner with clients on their growth agendas and support company transformation through supports for R&D, training and investment in sustainable business practices.
IDA’s client grant budget is a priority for the agency for the attraction of new investors to Ireland in an increasingly competitive environment, and particularly to regional locations. The grant programme will maintain existing levels of investment, with a focus on innovation, sustainability, and digitalisation in line with the Government’s White Paper on Enterprise and will include RD&I, Training, Capital and Employment grants.
In tandem, in a challenging, competitive, and uncertain global environment, IDA’s Regional Property Programme ensures the supply of land, buildings and infrastructure in regional locations as required by current and prospective clients of both IDA, Enterprise Ireland and the LEOs. In this regard, a robust property and infrastructure ecosystem can be the key differentiator in winning FDI projects, as evidenced by the record regional results achieved under IDA’s Winning 2015-2019 strategy & its current Strategy - Driving Recovery and Sustainable Growth 2021 - 2024.
The Regional Property Programme is design to be a significant driver of investment in quality building solutions in regional locations. In the current Strategy, the IDA is progressing delivery of 19 Advanced Building Solutions (ABS) to regional locations. IDA also partners with the private sector and Local Authorities to deliver buildings in key locations where appropriate. IDA is also investing in significant infrastructure projects across the portfolio of Business and Technology Parks to upgrade and is maintaining these key assets in line with the evolving requirements of IDA and EI clients. To this end, the IDA has maintained a focus on land banks and utility intensive strategic sites to future proof the ability of their property portfolio to support the project pipeline.
Success to date, in line with IDA’s Build programme, has seen the investment or expected investment of companies across the current property footprint. To build on this positive momentum and ensure IDA has the ability to compete for investments of scale across all activities and sectors, it is imperative that the Agency can be agile in developing and maintaining a property portfolio to support future investments across all regions as they arise. In this context, continued investment in infrastructure upgrades, provision and future proofing, in addition to further land acquisitions and the building of new buildings is critical to delivering on IDA’s and EI’s balanced regional development agenda with the proposed expenditure being commensurate with this ambitious strategy.
