Fine Gael Councillor Paddy McCartan, Local Area Rep for the South East, has described latest figures for job creation as “encouraging”.
“The figures from the IDA, which show its client companies created more than 12,700 in 2012, are the latest in a series of results which give an encouraging start to 2013,” he stated. “There are a number of very positive elements to the announcement from the IDA; its client companies created more new jobs last year than in any year since 2002, jobs losses were at the lowest level in a decade, and 80% of the job losses from the 2007 – 2010 period have now been recovered.
“These results underline the strength of the multinational sector here. The fact that over 40% of last year’s IDA projects were from companies coming to Ireland for the first time is very significant. This shows many of the world’s leading companies view Ireland as an ideal place to do business, despite our economic difficulties which have dominated the headlines over the last few years.
“The numbers of jobs created by IDA companies exceeds the targets set out in the Action Plan for Jobs, and follow a number of other positive economic results since the beginning of the new year. Enterprise Ireland’s results show that Irish companies are striving ahead and expanding into new markets.
“I find these figures encouraging, particularly at the start of a new year,” Councillor McCartan continued. “The multinational sector now employs more than 150,000 people here; that’s higher than at any time since the onset of the financial crisis. This has a positive knock-on effect for the domestic economy; it is estimated that for every job created by an IDA or Enterprise Ireland firm, an additional job is created in the local economy.
“Conditions remain tough in the domestic economy, and we need to ensure that it is ready to take advantage of these positive developments in the multinational and exporting sectors. Retraining initiatives are focused on equipping people who are out of work with the right skills to benefit from new job opportunities, and a range of measures have been implemented to improve the flow of credit to small businesses,” he added.