Significant new investments to be announced - IDA

IDA Ireland will announce a series of "significant" new investments in the healthcare, pharmaceutical and internationally-traded services sectors over the coming three months, the authority's chief executive, Mr Seán Dorgan said yesterday.

Presiding over what he described as a "better than expected" record for 2002, Mr Dorgan predicted that the first quarter of this year would be the best recorded since 2000 in investment terms.

IDA's preliminary figures for 2002 show that a total of 11,713 new jobs were created by 1,098 IDA-backed companies last year, while almost 15,000 jobs were lost over the same period.

The net result was a 2.2 per cent shrinkage in employment, with the harshest declines noted in western regions.

The news comes just days after Enterprise Ireland reported the first net decline in employment among indigenous companies for a decade.

IDA pointed out however that the rate at which jobs are being lost among international companies is diminishing, with 3,000 more jobs eliminated in 2001 than in 2002.

"Despite the turbulent global conditions in 2002 the year shaped up better than expected, with a last quarter boost in new projects secured by IDA," Mr Dorgan said yesterday, attributing the overall performance to "hard work".

Last year was "exceptionally strong" in the pharmaceuticals and healthcare sectors where total employment levels grew by 3.8 per cent, according to the IDA figures.

Financial services was also a robust performer, with total employment in the sector growing by more than 13 per cent in 2002.

This was balanced against job losses in a number of significant IDA-related sectors however. Employment numbers in the IT and communications (ICT) sectors for example fell by almost 5 per cent over the 12 months.

Mr Dorgan acknowledged that conditions within ICT remain uncertain, but said the Republic had fared well in 2002 when compared to other locations.

The 10 largest ICT companies operational in the Republic had, he said, held their employment levels over the past year, with the resumption of construction at Intel's Fab 24 plant in Leixlip, Co Kildare, illustrating continued competitiveness.

"We took a good deal of comfort from the Intel reinstatement," said Mr Dorgan.

IDA secured 55 new projects in manufacturing and international services last year, compared to 33 in 2001.

These new projects are committed to creating 8,700 new jobs in coming years.

Mr Dorgan said that several of the new projects currently in IDA's pipeline would create 100 or more jobs, with all new projects "significantly underpinned" by a requirement for highly-skilled employees.

In 2002, 30 companies agreed to invest almost €120 million in research and development in 2002 while IDA committed almost €30 million to the same projects.

"In many ways, it's the quality of the activity rather than the number of jobs that's important," he said.

The new developments will also adhere to IDA's professed goal of balancing achievement throughout the regions, Mr Dorgan added.

Last year's figures show that employment among IDA-backed companies fell by more than 10 per cent in the west and mid-west regions, while 5.1 per cent growth was recorded in the north-west and Donegal.

Total IDA grants in 2002 amounted to €116 million, while companies backed by the authority paid an estimated €2.2 billion in corporation tax to the Exchequer.