Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 26 November 2015
106. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the extent to which this jurisdiction remains an attractive and competitive location for inward and indigenous investment likely to lead to job creation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42239/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraEnterprise 2025, the Government’s long-term enterprise policy was launched earlier this month. It is an ambitious strategy, with the objective of delivering growth over the next decade that is sustainable, led by strong export performance, builds on our sectoral strengths, and that is underpinned by innovation, productivity, cost effectiveness and competitiveness. We aim to build resilience into our economy so that we do not suffer again as we have done in the past number of years. We have 135,800 more people at work than when we launched our first Action Plan for Jobs in 2012. Our export performance has been exceptional, with exports by Enterprise Ireland clients at a record of €18.6bn last year. Employment in EI and IDA supported firms has grown by over 40,000 since 2012.
Enterprise 2025 is a strategy that aims to build an economy that will not just achieve full employment but will sustain it in the long term. It has the commitment across government to take focused actions to deliver growth that is sustainable, led by strong export performance and underpinned by innovation, productivity and competitiveness.
Our objective is to support the creation of an additional 140,000 direct and indirect jobs in Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland agency-assisted enterprises. We are targeting an increase in the number of startups by 25 percent per annum and to grow exports of Irish-owned firms at a rate of 6-8 percent per annum, achieving a 50 percent increase by 2020. We are also targeting winning an additional 1,080 inward investment projects over the period to 2020.
We cannot take the achievement of these targets for granted and we will have to stretch ourselves further to maintain the momentum of growth. Sustaining improvements in our competitiveness will essential and we have are targeting a rank amongst the top 3 small companies in the World Bank Doing Business Index.
Ireland is the first country world-wide to introduce an OECD compliant Knowledge Development Box (KDB) offering certainty to global and Irish owned enterprises.
The OECD nexus approach sets out the principles and guidelines under which income arising from IP assets can qualify for a lower rate of tax under a KDB initiative. Ireland’s KDB rate is 6.25 percent (half of the corporation tax rate of 12.5 percent) and is internationally competitive. It is important to note that there have been no changes to the headline corporation tax rate of 12.5 percent on trading income and the continued commitment to this rate has been reiterated in Budget 2016. The certainty, predictability and clear signal that this sends to enterprise – including both Irish owned and foreign owned entities establishing and doing business from here - remains essential.
The Knowledge Box, as announced by the Minister for Finance in Budget 2016, will support and encourage both foreign and Irish owned enterprise to undertake research and development here, to protect the intellectual property that arises and to benefit from the measure.
Increasing indigenous investment will necessitate a continuing focus on establishing a vibrant and stimulating ecosystem for entrepreneurship to deliver an increase the number of start-ups by 25 percent per annum. We will also focus on developing clusters of competitive advantage in high growth and emerging areas so as to ensure that individual enterprises, and the economy more generally, gain from impactful inter-firm relationships throughout the country, through stimulating the establishment of clusters of scale and international visibility in areas of strength. Ireland is, and will continue to be, the best place to succeed in business, delivering sustainable employment and higher standards of living for all.
