JOBS MINISTER RICHARD Bruton has travelled to the United States for a week-long, five-city tour hoping to target investments from technology and life sciences companies.

The IDA Ireland tour will make stops in Boston, Raleigh, Atlanta, Minneapolis and Chicago, meeting 19 companies of varying sizes hoping to encourage them to invest in Ireland.

Nine of those companies are in the technology sector, including four in software, while another four are in the health and life sciences field. The remainder of the companies work in the aviation, business services, financial services and food sectors.

The Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation said the companies involved in the tour had a combined annual revenue of over $300 billion and a total global workforce of over 800,000.

Bruton said the government’s Action Plan for Jobs was intent on further exploiting the role of multinationals in creating employment in Ireland.

“We are determined to build on this, and develop deeper relationships with more multinational companies to create more jobs,” he said.

Multinational companies are responsible for 250,000 jobs and over €19billion of direct spend in our economy, and a string of announcements over recent weeks from world-leading companies including Apple and Mylan shows that these companies increasingly see Ireland as a location where they can invest and create jobs.

The mission is the eighth major investment tour undertaken by Bruton since taking office, and his fourth to the United States.