Regional development is a key element of Government's enterprise policy, as set out in the White Paper on Enterprise, and is a key focus of the work of my Department and our Agencies. In this regard, the availability of property and infrastructure solutions is a key factor in investment decisions and a robust property and infrastructure ecosystem can be the key differentiator in winning Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) projects.
IDA Ireland’s Regional Property Programme is aimed at supporting economic development and job creation across the country by providing property solutions for its own as well as Enterprise Ireland and LEO clients, and IDA Ireland facilitates both virtual and in-person sites visits for companies. Data on the number of site visits is provided on a county level and figures from 2019 to 2023 for site visits to County Wexford are set in the table that follows. In addition, there was one site visit to Wexford to Q2 this year. In interpreting the figures, it should be noted that potential clients may visit more than one county and may return to a location more than once and the figures being provided represent individual visits and therefore, may not be indicative of the number of companies that have visited.
|
Wexford
|
2019
|
2020
|
2021
|
2022
|
2023
|
|
IDA site visits
|
6
|
4
|
1
|
5
|
2
|
IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland client companies created 3,119 jobs in County Wexford over the past five years and the breakdown of annual job creation in the County is outlined in the table below:
|
Wexford
|
2019
|
2020
|
2021
|
2022
|
2023
|
|
IDA Jobs Gained
|
469
|
209
|
259
|
222
|
215
|
|
EI Jobs Gained
|
367
|
232
|
312
|
535
|
299
|
Grant Payments to both IDA and EI clients in County Wexford over the last 5 years are shown below:
|
Wexford
|
2019
|
2020
|
2021
|
2022
|
2023
|
|
IDA
|
€155,000
|
€260,158
|
€652,455
|
€320,697
|
€273,226
|
|
EI
|
€1,569,501
|
€5,684,223
|
€3,094,070
|
€2,916,237
|
€1,381,339
|
There was an additional €928,270 paid by EI towards infrastructural clients in County Wexford, comprised of €899,389 in 2023 and €28,881 during 2022.
I should note that grants paid in a particular year are not necessarily linked to either the investments won, or the jobs created in that 12-month period. Grants are generally drawn down over the lifetime of a project which is typically over a period of three to five years. Equally, some investments which result in job creation may not be grant aided and some well-established firms may no longer be receiving grant payments.
