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Updated at 4.27pm
THOUSANDS OF EXTRA jobs were created across Ireland last year through foreign direct investment, but some parts of the country missed out on the bulk of the development.
The IDA, the semi-state agency charged with attracting multinationals to the country, today admitted it was still falling well short of its target that half of all new investment would flow to regional areas.
Only 37% of all investments from its client companies in 2014 were outside Dublin and Cork, although that percentage was up from 30% the previous year.
Over the 12-month period, 15,012 jobs in IDA-backed companies were created and 7,881 were lost – a net gain of 7,131 positions across the country last year.
The biggest job increases were in Dublin and the southwest region, which includes Cork, while the smallest were in the northeast and northwest border counties, and the midlands – the region with the lowest total number of jobs from foreign investment.
This is where the biggest winners and losers through the IDA’s work have been:
TheJournal.ie previously reported that one county, Longford, had zero IDA-sponsored visits between 2009 and September 2014 out of the 2025 missions carried out elsewhere in the country over that period.
But the agency said the number of visits was in “no way indicative” of its efforts to market any region to foreign investors.
Regional goal not impossible
IDA chief executive Martin Shanahan today said the target of 50% investment for the regions was “ambitious” – but not impossible.
“There is continuing growth in the trend of (multinational) companies locating in large urban areas of scale so, in essence, we’re trying to buck the trend,” he said.
Shanahan said the IDA had also been targeting emerging tech companies which usually wanted to be near other similar firms in major cities.
Jobs Minister Richard Bruton said multinationals accounted for nearly 10% of jobs for the Irish workforce and the companies were of crucial importance to the economy because of the quality of the work involved and the knock-on effect for the country.
The IDA said the multinationals it supported now employed some 174,488 people in Ireland – the highest figure in the organisation’s 55-year history – against a “a particularly challenging European economic environment and changing corporate taxation landscape”.
There were 197 foreign investments last year, up 20% on the 2013 figure, with the companies including online shopping giant Amazon, LinkedIn, AirBnb, PayPal and Johnson & Johnson.
‘Cautiously optimistic’ for 2015
Shanahan said – based on the agency’s immediate pipeline for the first quarter of the year – he was confident about the incoming flow of investment for 2015.
“In relation to the remainder of the year we are cautiously optimistic,” he said.
Ireland is in a good position to win significant business across a range of sectors. However all business is hard-won and we need to be vigilant and avoid complacency, particularly in the area of cost competitiveness.”
The IDA has welcomed the government’s latest tax moves – including the development of a “knowledge-development box” to offer companies an incentive to develop new products in Ireland.
That plan, believed to involve offering firms a 50% discount on tax for their intellectual-property income, still has to clear the hurdle of the European Commission, which has been investigating similar schemes already running in the UK and Germany.
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I genuinely wish they’d give as much attention to the small businesses in this country as they do to the big foreign guys that can drift in and out of this country with no difficulty. A small business may not be able to offer the same levels of employment, pay the same levels of PAYE/PRSI etc but we still contribute. Then again where’s the fanfare in creating one or two jobs..couldn’t be wheeling Edna out for something so small could they?
Small businesses employ over 1.7 million people in Ireland. Multi-nationals employ a little over 120,000. The government should do a lot more to help the biggest employers in the real economy.
Could we have a breakdown on the types of jobs .
How many were temporary agency contracts and how many were permanent pensionable .
There are certain jobs that add value to the economy more than others.
This has to be done to assess the true value of the I.D.A. and F.D.I. .
What about the 1000s that has left for work abroad???
13,000 letters sent out to jobseekers by Joan Burtons department informing them of job offers abroad.
If it gets the figures down before the general election, Joan would probably drop them to the airport personally.
Probably not in her car though. It would take 3.5 hours to move 10 feet :) Besides, does she not have PTSD after the Jobstown incident?
Did they have any beer flyers in them ?
Wrong there Mike,American companies alone in this country employ 120,000 people,the total multinational sector employ far in exess of these numbers.
Enda, if there was 100% employment in this country, you would still be a barefaced liar.
Ive worked in a couple of medium sized MNCs in Ireland and bar management and some very specialized positions the pay is fairly shite and the promotion ceiling is low.
Invest in local business, not in these international service centres who will skip off to the next pathetic country that begs them to leave Ireland with a bigger brown envelope.
I do love how people can can find some negativity towards more employment.
I just find it bizarre how peolpe can’t accept the government doing something good. I’m not saying I agree with all of the government’s policys but how can there be negative comments about investment in ireland and employment?
Daniel..I can’t speak for anyone else but all I am saying is that the government need to focus their sights on small or medium sized businesses and not just the big players. Nobody is disputing more employment is good but these big guys have a record of coming in and packing up to leave just as quick..then it becomes an unemployment story.
Tony, that’s what Enterprise Ireland does, and does it very well.
I just disagree. Look at Microsoft, Intel, the big pharmaceuticals that have been here for years. Provide huge employment and tax income. Without those multinationals we’d lose big money.
Richard burton has been very quiet recently, must be planning on leadership bid
Citizen Smith say what you like but Bruton has made himself available to any initiative anywhere in the country where job creation and innovation has been on the agenda. One of the ministers in the right portfolio with a genuine passion for helping businesses of any size.
I wonder how much we pay to get company’s to come here. Johnson and Johnson sounds much like a company that was here in Tallaght a few years ago.
More kenny lies
What exactly is he lying about now?
He can’t say or do anything these days without a barrage of insults.
I know he isn’t half as likeable as Bertie Ahern or Gerry Adams but why does Enda get accused of being a liar on the journal and no one is allowed to accuse those two of lying.
Messing with numbers again.
How many were lost.
or stolen ?
Pity this isn’t broken down by county but as far as I know my own, Carlow hasn’t got any multinational investment; at a recent county council meeting the IDA came in for sharp criticism.
Although we have the structures, many of which lie idle, they’re not purpose built.
We could of course retro-fit Braun or Lapple (Whitelite are the present tenants but sadly today they’ve announced they’re closing with the loss of 29 jobs) but to what spec and with what industry in mind?
We’re being left behind locally and regionally and nationally.
I think we were only visited 2-3 times by the IDA in either 2013 or 2014.
What about the thousands that have left the country for work abroad ???
The Dept of Social Welfare hired a company last year as part of Momentum project, one thing they did was suggest to the under 25s that immigration was a good idea and a good opportunity. The key to this momentum project was to play the CSO unemployment figures by putting the long term unemployed into work practice where they were set to work to work 37.5 hours a week for 12 weeks in order just to get their dole and they did this to the under 20s to. Missing days meant a deduction of 20 euro a day or being cut of the dole for 9 weeks. It was done by a company working for the DSP and everyone had to go to them rather than the DSP, the company dealt with actions and PPS numbers too… Instead of the DSP directly and after doing this they were short term unemployed then.
I see no North East in that table, Louth is a black hole for jobs now. Only jobs for people who have voted Fine Gael especially the areas like Mayo and Limerick hay? They want to keep their seats after the next election, is that how they do it???
10% of the ‘irish’ workforce… lol they can leave, we wouldn’t notice.
No mention of John McNulty loosing the job he nearly had except for Enda’s incompetence . But I suppose that’s a different Department …… This is jobs in Richard “Ansbacher Dossier” Bruton’s Department.
Is there not some thing awfully wrong when I can write this and it has semblance in reality ?
South East gets no IDA love. In person they say that they cannot sell the place without a university. In public the used to say it. Until WIT gets a section 9 review to become a proper university the south east will stuffer double the national unemployment rate and will continue its decline. Well played Galway, Limerick and Cork. Bravo.
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