Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 23 May 2024
104. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the extent to which he and his office continue to attract employment generating and trade benefiting enterprises to this country via foreign direct investment or indigenously; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23228/24]
View answerMy Department works with IDA to ensure a strong continuing pipeline of inward investment into Ireland. As the state agency for Foreign Direct Investment, IDA Ireland continues to help to maintain a strong level of employment across the FDI sector, robust regional investment and a strong performance across the key transformation areas of research development and innovation, sustainability, digitalisation and talent development.
In 2023, 248 investments were won by IDA Ireland which is enabling the creation of 19,000 jobs for the Irish economy. Of these, 132 investments, or 53%, were outside of Dublin demonstrating IDA Ireland’s commitment to balanced regional development. A third of investments won, 83, were greenfield or first-time investments. Last year also saw the number of persons directly employed by IDA Ireland’s client base, comprised of more than 1,800 companies, reach over 300,000 people for the second year in a row.
Focusing on sustainable growth, IDA Ireland will continue to leverage the green transition as a core component of Ireland's proposition to overseas investors by showcasing Ireland as a climate-friendly and sustainable business environment. In this regard, in 2023, IDA Ireland approved 25 sustainability projects focused on carbon abatement and building Ireland’s Green Economy with over €1.4billion committed by IDA client companies on research and innovation projects in 2023. Furthermore, client spend of over €77m was committed to investment in talent development.
IDA Ireland will continue to work with multinational companies already in Ireland to deepen and expand their presence here, while also attracting new multinational investments in core sectors of focus.
My Department, along with Enterprise Ireland, also continues to focus on the development and growth of Irish enterprises in world markets. Enterprise Ireland supports both the start-up and established companies to increase sales and exports in global markets, which in turn results in increased employment.
Through implementation of Enterprise Ireland’s strategy, Leading in a Changing World 2022 – 2024, the agency has an objective to create an additional 45,000 new jobs by 2024, the highest ever level of Government supported indigenous jobs. The total number of jobs created in client companies of Enterprise Ireland was 15,530 in 2023. Even when job losses were taken into account, there was a positive net jobs result of 5,011 in a very challenging year for businesses.
Business is being transformed by drivers such as climate change, the accelerated adoption of technology, and changing trends in globalisation in ways that present both challenges and opportunities. Enterprise Ireland continues to support employment creation sectors through direct advice and funding assistance to internationally-focused enterprises in manufacturing and international services sectors and through working with the network of 31 Local Enterprise Offices.
IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland have developed a new strategy to enhance global sourcing linkages between their respective clients. This new strategy is designed to enhance client engagement and accelerate the delivery of a 20% uplift in global sourcing from IDA Ireland clients for Enterprise Ireland clients by the end of Q4 2024. Under the umbrella of ‘Export in Ireland’, IDA Ireland will facilitate introductions to up to 80 IDA Ireland clients up until the end of 2024.
Despite challenging global issues affecting the Irish economy in recent years, including the impacts of Brexit, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, Ireland has continued to perform strongly in continuing to attract employment generating, and trade benefiting enterprises.
