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Industrial Development

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 June 2025

Thursday, 19 June 2025

Ceisteanna (262, 263)

Conor D McGuinness

Ceist:

262. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment the number of IDA-hosted visits to each city in the State in each of the past 20 years, in tabular form. [33364/25]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Conor D McGuinness

Ceist:

263. Deputy Conor D. McGuinness asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment the number of IDA-hosted visits to each county in each of the past 20 years, in tabular form. [33365/25]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

I propose to take Question number 263 and Question number 262 together.

Regional development is a key element of Government's enterprise policy and is a key focus of the work of my Department and its agencies. In that regard, regional development is a strategic imperative for the IDA. IDA is committed to the pursuit of balanced, compact regional development and is targeting 550 of a total target of 1,000 investments to regional locations under its new strategy, Adapt Intelligently: A Strategy for Sustainable Growth and Innovation 2025-29.

The availability of suitable property and strategic sites is a critical component of the regional value proposition and can be the key differentiator in investment decisions in the regions from both new and existing clients as well as clients of Enterprise Ireland and the LEOs. In this regard, IDA Ireland’s Regional Property Programme aims to address regional market failure through investment in enterprise-focused property solutions that meet the needs of MNCs and indigenous clients in support of winning investments. IDA also maintains a focus on acquisition of new landbanks and strategic sites to future-proof the ability of the property portfolio in regional locations to support the project pipeline.

Data on site visits facilitated by IDA is available on a county basis only. The IDA also highlighted to me that site visits are only one measure in a company’s interest in particular location and may not necessarily be a true measure of the overall level of foreign direct investment (FDI) activity in a region or county. The level of FDI may be better gauged by reference to the IDA’s Annual Employment Survey results which captures jobs created the agency’s client companies across regions.

In addition, potential clients visiting Ireland may visit more than one county and may return to a location more than once. The figures provided below represent individual visits and are therefore not necessarily indicative of the number of companies that have visited.

I would also highlight that the final decision on where to locate an investment is always decided by the client and not by IDA Ireland and can take many years to convert from initial site visit to final project proposal.

The table below outlines the number of site visits by county over the past 20 years.

Site Visits by County 2005 - 2024

County

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

Carlow

7

6

7

1

1

3

2

4

1

2

1

9

8

7

9

2

4

3

5

6

Cavan

2

4

1

1

0

3

0

3

2

1

0

2

2

2

7

2

3

1

2

4

Clare

1

3

3

2

9

7

15

14

5

9

12

18

22

13

28

16

20

22

40

21

Cork

35

16

27

41

29

44

27

38

31

30

48

49

51

61

68

30

44

45

39

41

Donegal

4

9

3

3

3

4

2

1

7

6

5

7

2

8

12

1

7

7

7

2

Dublin

71

90

91

92

90

197

150

196

180

205

242

284

327

269

284

121

153

201

173

221

Galway

14

20

15

14

22

41

35

18

15

19

41

42

62

54

46

21

31

40

38

34

Kerry

4

2

3

4

3

2

2

1

1

3

6

3

9

10

5

1

1

13

8

6

Kildare

0

0

1

1

1

2

3

1

1

1

7

8

10

8

14

8

7

6

4

5

Kilkenny

0

0

2

1

2

0

0

3

3

4

10

10

6

5

13

8

6

3

10

8

Laois

7

5

6

6

1

0

2

0

2

0

4

6

4

10

5

2

3

3

5

2

Leitrim

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

2

8

8

5

6

2

1

1

2

1

1

Limerick

19

24

35

9

18

38

40

30

23

22

40

49

42

35

57

26

37

48

52

38

Longford

1

0

2

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

6

7

5

3

1

0

5

2

2

Louth

47

47

24

23

28

25

26

12

4

10

20

24

22

20

40

14

10

16

11

7

Mayo

2

3

4

3

1

1

0

1

3

4

3

5

7

10

3

1

1

1

3

1

Meath

12

2

0

3

2

0

2

0

1

2

7

8

3

6

4

2

0

1

2

1

Monaghan

0

1

0

0

0

0

1

0

1

0

2

2

1

3

4

2

2

4

3

1

Offaly

7

1

4

11

6

7

1

3

1

1

8

4

5

5

5

1

4

4

3

5

Roscommon

2

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

4

0

2

1

3

3

3

1

1

3

4

7

Sligo

6

5

6

2

5

12

3

6

10

7

15

20

18

15

29

9

6

10

7

8

Tipperary

1

0

0

0

1

1

1

5

4

3

12

8

8

5

7

12

12

9

10

2

Waterford

10

12

9

12

8

11

11

26

14

11

31

17

11

21

18

9

8

12

18

18

Westmeath

14

16

18

18

14

22

15

7

9

12

28

36

42

22

22

14

20

20

13

18

Wexford

2

0

1

0

0

1

0

3

2

1

4

7

3

3

6

4

1

5

2

6

Wicklow

0

0

0

2

2

5

3

6

1

4

7

5

2

1

6

2

1

2

2

1

Roinn