Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 6 Nov 1997

Vol. 482 No. 5

Written Answers - Regional Development.

Michael Finucane

Ceist:

17 Mr. Finucane asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if her attention has been drawn to the fact that in recent years, of the 300 software and computer service companies in the country, only 20 have been established in the western region in spite of the fact that the region produces at least 600 information technology skilled graduates annually few of whom find employment in the west. [18273/97]

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Miss Harney)

Since coming to office I have made regional development a priority and intend to continue to encourage the agencies to locate new projects, where possible, in the regions.

There is tremendous potential for the internationally traded services sector at regional level. There are now more than 40 indigenous companies in the internationally traded services sector in the west region, of which 30 are in the software and computer information technology sectors. In County Galway, there has been a 75 per cent increase in employment in the indigenous information technology sector where over 20 new indigenous companies, employing approximately 150 people, have been established with state assistance from Forbairt.

During 1997, two new IDA Ireland assisted projects in the western region were announced in the software sector, Lionbridge Technologies, one of the top international companies in the software localisation industry which will create 100 jobs in Ballina and Multistream Systems International which will create 28 jobs in Ballybrit, Galway. Employment in IDA Ireland assisted overseas software companies in the western region totalled 545 people in 1996.

In the Shannon Development western region (Limerick, Clare and North Kerry) there are 30 software companies (indigenous and overseas) employing a total of 389.