Employment Data Dail Éireann — 2026-01-13 ============================================================ Alan Dillon (FG), Mayo We are doubling down on skills development. Very much part of that is the fact that we are working with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science on apprenticeships and training courses, expanding many of the skills within Springboard and Skillnet and working on digital and green skills. The results of IDA Ireland’s most recent report show there were over 183 investments, 57% of which were regionally based. That demonstrates how important it is to ensure we have the jobs outside our main cities. The facts do not lie. This comes on the back of our upskilling of many people, including students, right across the country. We have a commitment concerning over 33,000 employees, with a focus on the retention of skills. Also, we are investing in regions, and that is through IDA Ireland’s Adapt Intelligently programme. We even see that a new advanced manufacturing facility is being progressed in County Mayo, in Castlebar, and the securing of a new land bank is being considered. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-13/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:30+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-01-13