Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 May 2012
323 Deputy Seamus Healy asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in view of the high levels of unemployment in south Tipperary, the number of visits to County Tipperary facilitated by the Industrial Development Agency, other agencies and his Department in the past 12 months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25204/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraI have been informed by IDA Ireland that, in the period from the beginning of January 2011 to the end of April 2012, there has been 1 site visit by potential investors to county Tipperary sponsored by IDA. Enterprise Ireland and the County Enterprise Boards deal with indigenous industry and do not sponsor similar type site visits by investors. At the end of December 2011 there were 12 IDA client companies in County Tipperary employing 3,356 people, while Enterprise Ireland had 129 client companies employing 5,197 people in the county.
The global economy and, in particular, the European economy, which is the primary target market for FDI clients in Ireland, is in a low growth phase. The challenge for IDA Ireland is to win FDI in this low growth environment. There is intense and continual international competition to win this FDI, which is mainly dominated by Metro City Regions with populations in excess of 1 million i.e. London, Manchester, Singapore, Amsterdam, Boston, Los Angeles etc.
As Ireland competes for high quality investments, the concept of scale is crucial. Leading global corporations require a significant population pool, access to qualified talent, world standard physical and digital infrastructure coupled with the availability of sophisticated professional and business support services. Ireland has only one Metro Region, the Greater Dublin area, so, in order to achieve economic regional development, IDA prioritises the marketing of Gateway locations within each Region as the locations of critical mass (i.e. sufficient scale of population, skills, infrastructure, companies, business services etc.) and highlights the opportunities provided by Hub locations which are within commuting distances of these Gateways. IDA also promotes other locations as part of its marketing efforts in response to specific client requirements.
Typically, a company is shown three or four locations within a Gateway Economic Region that can meet its requirements and, in certain cases, other locations are visited on an opportunistic basis. In selecting locations to market to client companies, IDA Ireland will endeavour to include locations which have been affected by closures/job losses. Whilst IDA Ireland seeks to influence the selection of a location, the final decision on where to locate is taken in all cases by the investor.
The Government's Action Plan for Jobs has set a target of supporting the creation of 100,000 net new jobs over the period 2012 to 2016, with the longer term objective of having 2 million people at work by 2020. I recently announced the progress which has been made in this regard so far this year. Meanwhile, I am already getting suggestions and proposals in relation to preparing the Action Plan for 2013, which I am examining and will bring to Government later this year.
