Pace of IDA-sponsored investment and jobs slows

The flow of multinational investment into Ireland slowed in the first six months of 2024 amid an increasingly uncertain geopolitical backdrop.

Industrial development agency IDA Ireland’s latest half-year report said it supported 131 investments “enabling the future delivery” of 8,900 jobs so far this year. This was down from the 139 investments and 12,072 jobs secured during the same period last year.

“Ireland’s proposition as a location for FDI investment remains strong,” IDA Ireland chief executive Michael Lohan said.

“Against the backdrop of an intensely competitive global environment and the proliferation of industrial policies, it is imperative that IDA Ireland continues to attract and win new investments whilst at the same time continuing to support existing clients in their investment endeavours across the twin transition of sustainability and digitalisation,” he said.

Mr Lohan noted that two-thirds of foreign direct investment (FDI) into Ireland was coming from the United States and that the key for Ireland going forward was “getting enabling infrastructure right,” whether it is water, energy or housing.

The ongoing shortage of housing remains the single biggest impediment, he said.

“It’s at the very front end in terms of impact,” Mr Lohan said, noting it restricted companies in terms of their ability to attract staff to Ireland, to grow their employment base and to increase activity.

“The good news is we’re seeing progress but we need to see it quicker and we need to see more of it,” Mr Lohan said.

Investments announced during the six-month period include Pentagon Technologies whose facility in Dundalk will create 100 jobs; automotive fleet manager Element Fleet Management that is to set up a global leasing centre in Dublin creating 70 jobs; and Evernorth Health Services which is to locate a new innovation hub in Galway that will create 100 jobs.

Motorola on Monday announced a new global research and development (R&D) centre in Cork with plans to recruit 200 staff.

[ Motorola Solutions set to create 200 jobs in Cork ]

Explaining the lower levels of investment and accruing jobs this year, Mr Lohan said Ireland’s investment profile was changing reflecting “the scale and maturity of our industrial base”.

“We’re come through a period where investment meant substantial jobs growth … now we’re seeing investments” in things such as competitiveness, R&D and sustainability, which means a more modest pace of jobs growth “than we’ve seen in the past”.

IDA Ireland also announced a number of significant investment from existing clients, such as IBM Ireland’s announcement in May that it would create 800 new roles across its sites in Dublin, Cork and at its subsidiary Red Hat in Waterford; and Bristol Myers Squibb’s $400 million (€369 million) investment which will create 350 jobs, bringing the total number employed at its campus in Dublin to more than 1,000 people.

“Ireland continues to be recognised as a highly stable and attractive location for global investment,” Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke said at the launch of the report.

“Our country has a reputation for being agile, with an economy underpinned by a dynamic ecosystem of global companies, indigenous enterprise and academia working in collaboration,” he said.

Also speaking at the launch was IDA Ireland chairman Feargal O’Rourke, who said the global economy may have “passed peak globalisation” while highlighting the increasing trend towards trade protectionism.

“We’re seeing geopolitical uncertainty at a level we haven’t seen for decades, we’re seeing some era-defining trends” in terms of government involvement in incentivising FDI, the adoption of AI (artificial intelligence) and sustainability, he said.

He said the key for Ireland was to deliver on its infrastructural plan amid high-profile deficits in housing, water and energy.

Mr O’Rourke said infrastructural capacity, capability in terms of skills, cost competitiveness and political stability were the four key areas in which companies evaluated possible locations.