IDA Ireland CEO Michael Lohan. Image: Maxwell Photography
The wave of investments in 2023 are expected to create nearly 19,000 jobs, while employment among IDA Ireland client companies saw a slight decline this year.
IDA Ireland claims the country’s foreign direct investment (FDI) held steady this year despite growing competition and global economic challenges.
The state agency’s latest figures show that Ireland received 248 investments during 2023, with a third of these being greenfield or first-time investments. The number of investments is up 2.5pc compared to last year and IDA Ireland expects these investments to deliver nearly 19,000 jobs.
Meanwhile, the state investment agency said it has more than 1,800 client companies that employ more than 300,000 people across Ireland. This represents 11.3pc of national employment and shows Ireland’s reliance on foreign multinationals. This also marks the second consecutive year that employment from IDA Ireland client firms was more than 300,000.
Despite this milestone being maintained, 2023 saw the number of people employed at client companies fall by a small margin. This is reportedly the first time the number of jobs among IDA supported companies has fallen since 2009, Reuters reports.
The decrease was only 0.3pc and can be attributed to a slowdown in information and communications services, as this sector’s employment fell by 2.9pc. Various tech companies such as Meta and Amazon began global layoffs towards the end of 2022, a trend that continued in 2023 and impacted Ireland.
Other sectors including manufacturing, business, financial and other services all saw a growth in jobs this year.
Despite the drop, IDA Ireland said 2023 also brought “robust regional investment” as more than 54pc of the year’s deals were based outside of Dublin.
In terms of research and innovation, more than €1.4bn was committed by client companies on projects this year.
Some of the biggest investments include Analog Devices investing €630m at its European regional headquarters in Limerick, Eli Lily investing $1bn in its Limerick manufacturing hub, Dexcom’s planned €300m investment in Galway and PepsiCo investing €127m in its Cork manufacturing facility.
Other notable deals include Siemens expanding its Swords site with a centre of excellence, ABB opening a Dundalk R&D centre and Boston Scientific expanding its Clonmel site with an €80m investment.
IDA Ireland CEO Michael Lohan said the country is experiencing sustained levels of “highly skilled employment” despite the “global tech reset” and issues such as inflation, geopolitical disruptions and Irish infrastructure.
“It’s acknowledged that Ireland’s carrying capacity and infrastructural development, particularly in housing and energy supply, needs to be accelerated,” Lohan said. “IDA Ireland’s focus remains on winning investment for Ireland, building partnerships with client companies and supporting them in their growth and transformation.”
“During the next 12 months, we will be developing a new strategy to underpin Ireland’s FDI [foreign direct investment] offering. Paramount to that will be the partnerships that we build with our regional and national stakeholders and client companies to support them in their growth and transformation in order to deliver jobs and broader economic benefit to Ireland.”
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