Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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252. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of Industrial Development Agency sponsored companies, located in County Donegal, as a result of the six sponsored visits carried out by the Agency, in 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10494/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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IDA Ireland sponsored site visits by potential investors to specific locations in Ireland are only part of the long and complicated process involved in attracting foreign direct investment to this country. These site visits may take place at the beginning or end of the process and in some cases there are no site visits involved. Site visits, when they do occur, involve new companies visiting a location for the first time and senior executives of existing companies. For reasons of client confidentiality and commercial sensitivity, the IDA Ireland does not comment publicly on the success rate of such site visits.

While these site visits contribute to investment approvals and the creation of jobs, there is not always a direct correlation between site visits made and jobs created in any given year. It is important also to acknowledge the natural time lag between a decision being made to invest and that investment coming on stream. The time lag can be between 3 and 5 years in some cases. That time is required for such activities as locating and acquiring a suitable site for the company’s operations, constructing a facility, installing machinery and the recruitment and training of suitable staff.

The level of investment coming on stream is best captured in the number of jobs created in any given year as recorded in the Annual Employment Survey which shows that employment in IDA Ireland Client companies in Donegal rose from 2,106 in 2011 to 2,612 in 2014 an increase of over 20%. Indeed, the Quarterly Household Survey shows that in the past two years unemployment in the Border area, which includes Donegal, has fallen from 16.5% in Q4 2012 to 10% in Q4 2014.

As a Government, we are determined to ensure that every region in the country will benefit from recovery and we recently announced details of the Action Plan for Jobs-Regional initiative which will seek to maximise the strengths and assets of each region to support enterprise growth and job creation. The objective is that six Regional Action Plans will be launched by July, with two remaining Strategies in development at that stage.

Additionally the Government will provide up to €250 million over five years in additional capital funding to support regional enterprise development. This includes the roll out of a five year, €150 million property investment programme by IDA Ireland to attract foreign direct investment into the regions. This programme will build on the recent investment in or by delivery of a number of advance manufacturing and office facilities by the Agency in regional locations, including Letterkenny. A further sum of up to €100 million will be available to Enterprise Ireland to support enterprises in the regions to start-up, grow and export, thereby creating more jobs in regional locations.

I also recently launched IDA Ireland’s new strategy for the 5 year period 2015 to 2019. In that Strategy the Agency set itself a target of winning 900 investments over the 5 year period and of increasing increase the level of investments won into in each region by between 30% and 40% during the lifetime of the Strategy.