IDA Grants Highlights From 2019

/ 2nd March 2020 /

IDA Ireland says that employment levels in its client companies has reached 245,100, the highest ever number employed in the multinational sector. In 2019, 250 investments were made and 21,840 jobs created in FDI companies, the state agency estimates.

IDA job creation performance is measured from responses given by client companies on their current headcount numbers. IDA clients shed 8,000 jobs last year for a net gain of about13,900, and FDI companies now account directly for 10.5% of national employment.

Chief executive Martin Shanahan (pictured) says that in the 2015-2019 period, the agency funded 1,209 investments in total, 560 of which were new name investments, 400 expansions by established companies and the rest R&D investments.

Shanahan said: “That speaks to a continued confidence in Ireland’s investment proposition as a stable and reliable location for global investors, evidenced by the 125 new name companies who invested here in 2019.”

With regard to the future outlook, Shanahan sees significant downside risk over the next five year period. “Those risks emanate from the possibility of an economic correction in key source markets, continued trade tensions, subdued global economic growth and from domestic challenges related to competitiveness and the carrying capacity of the economy.”

The IDA’s funding from taxpayers last year was €192m, with €55m going on running costs and €137m paid out in various form of grants. That works out at a net job subsidy of €13,800, though IDA says the Exchequer gets that back from payroll taxes. The agency’s budget for 2020 is broadly similar.

IDA Ireland doesn’t publish details of grant recipients in its reports, though some payments are notified to the EU Commission. The latest update on 2019 payments to client companies is as follows: