Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 30 November 2022
50. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of Canadian companies IDA Ireland and Connect Ireland have engaged with in relation to setting up in the State in 2021 and to date in 2022. [59706/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraThere were 17 site visits to Ireland from Canadian companies in 2021 with 16 to date in 2022. In response to COVID, IDA migrated many of its business development and client engagement activities to digital platforms.
There are 61 IDA client operations of Canadian origin, which employed c. 8,350 people in 2021. This represents a 10% increase over 2020 numbers (numbers of clients & numbers employed). The top sectors represented by Canadian companies in Ireland are 1)?Technology and Business Services 2) Financial Services and FinTech and 3) Industrial Technologies & Life Sciences.
Six of the Top 10 largest Canadian companies have a presence in Ireland (Revenue Aug 2022). Three of the Top five Canadian Banks have a presence in Ireland. Four of the Top five Canadian Software companies have operations in Ireland. It is estimated that there are approximately 75 Canadian companies with presence in Ireland employing over 15,000 people in total.
There have been several high-profile announcements involving Canadian companies in the last 18 months including:
In July this year, Telus International increased its investment in Ireland with the opening of their new facility in Ballina, Mayo that will support the company’s creation and enhancement of data to enable better AI via human intelligence which followed on from their announcement in February of this year of 300 new jobs at its sites across Ireland (Cork, Dublin & Ballina) in areas such as support, shared services, cloud, analytics, AI and data annotation;
Optel Group from Quebec announced it was expanding its base in Ireland with a new state of the art manufacturing facility in Limerick back in February of this year also;
November of last year saw Scotiabank expanded further in Ireland driven by Brexit - with the Dublin site now the primary relationship manager for all EEA clients for the bank;
September of 2021 saw Greenfield Global – a global leader in the production of ethanol, high-purity speciality alcohols and solvents announce the official start of its operation in Portlaoise. The 40,000 sq ft manufacturing facility employs ca 40 people today serving clients in the lifesciences sector across Europe;
Also in Laois, N’Ware Technologies - an expert in the field of Enterprise Resource Planning and business applications software, created 25 new roles with the establishment of its European HQ in Mountrath Co Laois in July 2021;
Trulioo, a Vancouver headquartered tech unicorn (valued at 1.75BN) in the electronic identity and address verification space announced it would grow its Dublin operation to 70 people over the next 2 years in June 2021;
IDA Ireland has developed digital content which can be accessed by potential investors. It has also put in place an E-Site Visit experience for potential investors. The use of digital platforms by IDA staff has contributed to an enhanced digital engagement with existing clients and also in hosting E-Site visits with potential new investors.
