Dublin gets 40% of IDA site visits made by potential investors in first quarter

Dublin received more than 40% of the IDA sponsored site visits made by potential investors in the first quarter of 2016, Government figures confirm.

That is in spite of a stated Government commitment to greater “countrywide job creation”.

The figures released by the Department of Jobs show there were five counties which had no visits at all in the first quarter of the year.

A further seven, including Kerry and Donegal, had just one visit.

In total there were 136 visits by companies considering an investment here in the first quarter.

Of those, Dublin accounted for 57 visits and Cork for 11. Galway had 10 and Limerick had nine. One of the country’s smaller counties, Westmeath, also had nine visits in spite of having roughly half the population of Donegal. Meath, which has more than twice the population of Westmeath had just two visits.

Deputy Niall Collins, Fianna Fáil’s employment spokesman, said the figures “demonstrate the difference between what the Government is saying and what is actually happening”.

“It should be the case that every county is receiving site visits,” he said. “The Government’s action plan for jobs breaks it down on a regional basis, but it is not living up to its own rhetoric.”

The percentage of site visits to Dublin does seem to be coming down in recent years. In 2014, the capital accounted for 57% of all the visits. Last year, the 242 site visits to Dublin represented 43% of the overall total.

Jobs Minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor defended the Government’s commitment to countrywide job creation saying its Regional Action Plan for Jobs saw eight plans published throughout 2015 and 2016 “which identified a range of actions aimed at supporting each region to achieve its economic potential and raise employment levels”.

“These new regional initiatives are already showing promise. In 2015, 53% of all jobs created by IDA Ireland clients were based outside of Dublin, compared to 49% in 2014,” she said.

“Data on site visits is not an accurate measure of the level of Foreign Direct Investment activity in a region or county. That is because approximately 70% of all FDI investment won by IDA Ireland comes from its existing client base, rather than new companies.”