IDA Ireland Client Companies Created 12,722 New Jobs in 2012

IDA Ireland,has reported the creation of 12,722 new jobs during 2012. IDA client companies added a total of 6,570 new net jobs, the IDA’s third consecutive year of growth in net employment. Job losses at IDA client companies were the lowest for a decade.

In total there were 145 individual investments, with 66 (over 40%) from companies coming to Ireland for the first time. The IDA client base in Ireland now employs 152,785 people, a level last recorded before the global financial crisis began in 2008. Net job creation rose to 6,570 from 5,934 last year.

Among the biggest investments were Apple, PayPal, Northern Trust, EA Games, Fidelity, SAP, Amgen, Mylan, Cisco, Arvato, Allergan and Eli Lilly.  A notable feature of 2012 was the wide range of green field investments coming to Ireland, including Clearstream (part of Deutsche Bourse), Hubspot, Dropbox, Nextag, Aspen and Nuance.

IDA Ireland has just completed the third year of its five year Horizon 2020 strategy and the latest results put the organisation ahead of target in meeting its goal of creating 62,000 direct jobs by 2014 from 640 new investments. Over the course of the first three years (2010-2012) IDA has secured 419 investments and has delivered gross job gains of over 36,000. A copy of the strategy is available at www.idaireland.com/ida-ireland

IDA’s HORIZON 2020 STRATEGY
Two of the key aspects of the Horizon 2020 strategy are to drive company transformation to ensure higher levels of job retention and to focus particularly on the growth in employment intensive services, which leads to the speedy creation of jobs.

As part of an overall transformation agenda, IDA partners with companies across five key areas to transform their businesses: training support, technology uplift, R&D/product improvement, process development and energy efficiency.

In addition to company transformation, competitiveness gains have also helped Ireland maintain and win FDI and these gains must be defended and built on.

For example, the pharmaceutical sector is facing the fallout of patent expiry and some plants have competitiveness challenges which must be addressed. However the sector has been performing well in Ireland, with €1.1bn of fresh investment announced in 2012 from five major companies, resulting in 1,200 planned jobs. It remains among a range of sectors that contain significant opportunities for IDA in 2013.

EMPLOYMENT INTENSIVE SERVICES
The IDA has also been concentrating on attracting employment intensive services to Ireland, which leads to the speedy creation of jobs. A significant proportion of investments in 2012 were in the area of services operations, particularly serving the Europe, Middle East and Asia (EMEA) market.

In terms of 2012 gains were made across a range of sectors, with particularly strong performances from social/digital media, IT, financial services and life sciences.

ACTION PLAN FOR JOBS
Welcoming the 2012 performance, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation, Richard Bruton TD said: “When we launched the Action Plan for Jobs last year we set some very ambitious targets for new foreign investment for 2012.  On that basis I am delighted that the results today from the IDA confirm that we have surpassed the job creation figures for 2011 and have secured the highest net job creation numbers in a decade.  These investments are a superb vote of confidence in the Irish economy and the Irish people”.

“I’d like to pay tribute to Barry O’Leary and all his team in the IDA who have delivered these results in the face of ever increasing competition for this type of mobile investment.

“The challenge now is both to grow our level of foreign investments here and also to maximise the positive impact of those companies for the wider Irish economy.  That is why I am particularly pleased to see the work of a joint management team between IDA and Enterprise Ireland working closely together on this very task.  This team is now looking to attract new international start-up companies to Ireland and maximising procurement opportunities for Irish companies with existing larger foreign multinationals.  These types of projects, I believe, will help ensure that the impact of these fantastic companies deciding to locate in Ireland will be felt by as wide an audience as possible in the coming years.”

IRELAND’S OFFERING
Commenting on the 2012 figures, IDA Ireland Chief Executive Officer Barry O’Leary said: “Amid significant economic challenges globally and locally, Ireland turned in a strong FDI performance in 2012 with gains in employment across a broad range of sectors.  Helping FDI clients to transform their operations within Ireland also led to a significant reduction in employment losses, producing a strong year overall’’.

Speaking on Ireland’s offering to global companies, which includes a talented workforce, technology capability, corporation tax and Ireland’s strong FDI track record, Mr O’Leary said key global corporates continued to select Ireland as a destination of choice. “Ireland’s leading FDI companies have strong economic substance here in terms of large scale employment and investment. But Ireland faces a highly competitive landscape, with notable strong competition arising from the UK, the Netherlands and Switzerland and many other countries’’.

REGIONAL FOCUS
Ireland attracted a number of leading investments into regional locations in 2012, including PayPal (1,000 jobs) in Dundalk, Abbott (175 jobs) in Sligo, Mylan (200 jobs) in Galway, Allergan (200 jobs) in Westport and Northern Trust (400 jobs) in Limerick. During 2012 IDA began an online marketing initiative, Connect & Invest, to showcase the unique attributes of each region to international clients.

EMERGING COMPANIES
IDA has broadened and deepened its portfolio in recent years, embracing not just large multinational corporations (MNCs), but also working closely with fast growth companies, who aspire to be the MNCs of the future. IDA Ireland’s emerging business division posted a strong year, with a range of fast growing companies picking Ireland as their base, among them, Indeed.com, Keyedin, Zendesk and Red 5 Studios.

GROWTH MARKETS
Ireland has also established a footprint in high growth markets such as China and India over recent years and remains committed to the goal of securing 20% of all green field investments from high growth markets by 2014.

STAKEHOLDERS
The IDA would like to thank several key stakeholders, including Minister for Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation, Richard Bruton, who leads our parent department, An Taoiseach Enda Kenny, An Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore and many other Ministers who assisted in the promotion of Ireland in the international marketplace, and at home in the last 12 months. IDA would also like to acknowledge the contribution of sister agencies, Enterprise Ireland, Forfas and Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), Shannon Development and Údarás na Gaeltachta.

GROWING CONTRIBUTION OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT TO IRISH ECONOMY
Forfas recently measured the contribution of Ireland’s foreign multi-national companies to the economy in its Annual Business Survey of Expenditure in Ireland (ABSEI). This found that:

• IDA client exports increased by 7.5% in 2011, faster than the national average of 5.7%.
• IDA client companies spent €18.8bn in the Irish economy, an increase of 10% when compared with 2010 data.
• Payroll expenditure increased from €7.0bn to €7.3bn.
• Expenditure on Irish sourced materials increased from €1.5bn to €1.7bn.
• IDA client companies spent €9.6bn on Irish sourced services up from €8.5bn in 2010

FDI OUTLOOK
Addressing the outlook for 2013, Mr O’Leary said: “Key global markets are slowing down, particularly in Europe, which is a key focus for IDA’s existing and potential clients. However there are definite opportunities for growth in the IT/technology sector, in specific areas of financial services, in life sciences, in social/digital media and in sectors where consolidation is taking place on a pan-European basis. The IDA’s global team is determined to pursue these opportunities vigorously in 2013 and to ensure we achieve the goals and targets as outlined in Horizon 2020’’.