Cathal Crowe
Question:72. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will provide a report on the IDA and Enterprise Ireland’s latest efforts to bring business to County Clare. [51126/23]
View answerThursday, 23 November 2023
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IDA’s strategy, Driving Recovery & Sustainable Growth 2021-2024, identifies the opportunities for sustainable growth among IDA’s established base of clients and new investments - both from existing and new 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.
Clare has seen investment announcements from IDA client companies like Beckman Coulter, Edwards Lifesciences, Element Six, Extreme Networks, IQEQ, Jaguar Land Rover, Lufthansa Technik Turbine Shannon, MeiraGTx and OLED Material Manufacturing PPG in recent years.
IDA Ireland also actively engages with Clare County Council, Shannon Commercial Properties and other property owners and stakeholders on their development plans, and markets sites and property solutions across the Mid-West region through its extensive overseas network to both existing and new investors. In this regard, the region is well positioned to continue to retain and attract new FDI investment and grow employment in existing companies and IDA Ireland will continue to collaborate with all stakeholders and parties in the region to achieve this objective under the Regional Enterprise Plan.
Insofar as Enterprise Ireland client companies are concerned, employment increased by 6% in 2022. Enterprise Ireland has approximately 100 client companies in County Clare, employing 5,266 people across a broad number of sectors. Some recent job announcements for Co Clare include:
• Vitalograph, an Enterprise Ireland client, which produces respiratory diagnostic devices, which announced significant investments for Clare and Limerick. It will see the company expand by opening a new site in Limerick city centre and at Clare Technology Park, which will see it take on an extra 200 employees;
• EI Electronics also based in the Shannon Industrial Estate announced 200 jobs would be created by 2024, and
• Shannon Technical Services announced 80 jobs to be created by the end of 2023.
Enterprise Ireland 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.
Enterprise Ireland also 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. Enterprise Ireland 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.
The Smart Region (€145m) fund, which was launched as part of the 2024 Budget, is an ERDF co-financed scheme and will be administered by Enterprise Ireland. ERDF is a partnership model between the European Commission, Irish Government, and the Regional Assemblies. This partnership model has required consultation and engagement with many stakeholders over the past two years, resulting in a scheme that is evidence-based and linked to both EU and national policy instruments. The overall objective of this scheme is to drive job creation/retention and enterprise development in each region throughout Ireland, including Co. Clare. In addition, Smart Regions funding is targeted at strategic regional locations where an identifiable deficit exists in key infrastructure, which is necessary to support the micro and SME client base.
This scheme will be impactful for both regional and local entrepreneurial ecosystems. This investment in the ecosystem can only positively contribute towards making Ireland a world leading location to start and scale a business. It will have 4 distinct streams, which shall support the following activities/projects: Local infrastructure projects; Innovation clusters; Services to SMEs to drive innovation solutions, and Feasibility and Priming Grants.