Job Creation Dail Éireann — 2026-01-13 ============================================================ Alan Dillon (FG), Mayo Regional development is a key focus of our programme for Government and is central to the work of my Department and our enterprise development agencies. The mid-east region, comprising Kildare, Louth, Meath and Wicklow, is home to 126 IDA client companies employing 20,284 people. The mid-east has a significant ecosystem of well-established companies across technology, life sciences, international financial services, and engineering and industrial technologies. The region has also won significant investment in the food and the film subsectors. FDI performance has been consistent over the six years requested by the Deputy, 2020 to 2025, with IDA-supported employment increasing by 973 people, or 5%, over that period. Employment in Kildare and Meath increased by 490 and 1,259, respectively, while employment in Louth and Wicklow decreased by 710 and 66, respectively. Over the period of its last strategy, 2021 to 2024, IDA Ireland supported the delivery of 973 investments and the creation of 76,790 jobs. Some 54% of these investments were won to regional locations. In the mid-east, 51 investments were won against a target of 40. Under the current strategy, the IDA is targeting 550 of a total 1,000 investments to regional locations, including 60 in the mid-east. The first year of this strategy, 2025, saw IDA Ireland achieving the highest ever number of investments, 323, a 38% increase on 2024, which are expected to create over 15,300 additional jobs in the coming years. We know that investments by IDA Ireland client companies consistently generate high-quality, skilled jobs nationwide. It is significant that 183 investments, representing 57% of all investments in 2025, were in regional locations. --- 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