IDA confident it can add to bottom line in Cork and Kerry this year

After an exceptional year of good announcements in 2022, the IDA regional manager for the south-west, Patrick Doyle, explains why 2023 was 'another very good year' in terms of inward investment. 
IDA confident it can add to bottom line in Cork and Kerry this year

IDA Ireland South West Regional Manager, Patrick Doyle.

IDA Ireland doesn’t like looking forward more than six months, as in a fast changing world with strong headwinds — things do not remain the same for long.

But as Patrick Doyle, the south west regional manager for the agency explained, the Cork/Kerry region has been benefitting from a series of “good announcements” during 2022 — which he described as an exceptional year — and that 2023 was “another very good year”.

The IDA is charged with attracting foreign investment-fuelled employment to Ireland.

When the agency’s 2023 results were announced recently, they pointed to a growth in inward investment to nearly all the regions — including the South-West — as part of the IDA’s focus on balanced regional development, with a great emphasis now on what’s happening outside of Dublin.

There were 132 investments secured across regional locations during 2023, representing 54% of the overall figure.

Jobs

The total number of regional jobs now stands at 163,471. The Midlands region saw the strongest level of growth, up 5.8%.

There was growth in the border region (up 2.7%) and midwest region (up 2.6%), with the South-West and South-East regions up by 1.2% and 1.4%, respectively.

Elsewhere, the West region was down by 1.8%, whilst Dublin and the Mid-East region declined by 1.2% and 4.8%, respectively.

“Our strategy cycle is due to end at the end of next year, and a big focus of that is to have 50% of all investments nationally outside of the Dublin region — so balanced regional development is a particular focus of the IDA on a national basis,” Mr Doyle said.

Looking to next year, the perspective of the IDA focuses on the next six months — while it does have longer term strategic goals — as there are headwinds which impact on the decisions companies make whether to invest or not.

“Obviously you’ve got a lot of global impacts at the moment — with two wars ongoing, post-covid inflation, and the tech retrench that’s taking place globally as well — but despite all of that, we’ve had a good year.

“In IDA companies in the South-West, we’ve over 50,000 people employed — which is fantastic really. The vast majority of those are in Cork, with the remainder in Kerry.

“And the indirect spin-off from that — from our analysis — is that there’s an extra 40,000 people indirectly employed, these are people who would be supplying our client companies.”

Economic benefits

The economic benefits for the region don’t end there.

“In terms of payroll alone, that generates around €3.3bn annually for the South-West and a further €2.1bn in terms of material and services. “It’s a huge economic benefit to the region,” Mr Doyle said.

“It’s a massive impact in terms of a stimulus for the region.”

Looking forward to 2024, the IDA is upbeat and confident that it can add to that bottom line.

“In terms of our pipeline, we only look ahead for six months as the world changes very quickly.

“But we’ve a positive pipeline for the first six months of the year and, hopefully, we will convert some of that,” Mr Doyle said.

There were several highlights in 2023 which are causes for satisfaction for the agency.

“Qualcomm, who are in the semi-conductor space, was a particularly good announcement — bringing with it an extra 150 jobs, with a research and development centre in Cork, and that equates to an extra investment of around €80m — and these are all high skill jobs.”

It wasn’t all good news, however, as the recent announcement that up to 350 jobs were at risk at VMWare, in Ballincollig, illustrated.

“That’s very fresh,” the IDA regional manager said.

“Our thoughts are always with the people who are going to be affected, and all agencies — including our own — are working with the company to try and find alternative employment for those affected in the new year.”

He said that the VMWare announcement had more to do with a merger of VMWare with another company and the rationalisation of services which resulted, rather than the more general retrenchment of the tech sector.

Challenge

“No doubt there’s been a bit more challenge, but it’s rebalancing itself and we’re still very strong here in Cork — particularly when you take the likes of Apple, Dell Technologies, and the big cyber cluster of companies we have here in the region.”

A traditional measure of how well the IDA is doing has always been the number of site visits that take place, or are in the pipeline, over the next few months.

“We still have a very healthy level of site visits to the region,” he said, pointing out that these had been replaced somewhat by e-visits during the covid-19 era.

“The success of the IDA is built on the collaboration we get from existing companies who support our visits and — also — from the existing eco-system here in terms of the education institutions, the service providers, being able to point to people and showcase them, and the track record we have is a massive selling point for the region.”

Infrastructure

In terms of the infrastructure in the region, Cork and Kerry are well placed. But, as the IDA manager pointed out, there were shortcomings that needed to be addressed.

“There are challenges — obviously — and housing is the one everyone points to, but I think we are seeing green shoots there — particularly around Cork.

“The Land Development Agency (LDA) have announced the apartments on Horgan’s Quay and Glenveagh, down on the Ford site, that’s going to be actioned.

“The Housing for All strategy and being able to point to that, and the targeted figures in it, helps us when we’re speaking to clients — but for us, it’s all about delivery and we’re starting to see that I think — we just need to see continued delivery over the next 12 to 24 months to meet the needs that are there.”

One phrase which is very much part of the IDA strategy is “balanced development”, and Cork is definitely benefiting from the implementation of this aspect of IDA policy.

The opening of the Macroom/Baile Mhúirne N22 bypass adds significantly to the accessibility of the region for investors from overseas as they assess where they’re going to locate.
The opening of the Macroom/Baile Mhúirne N22 bypass adds significantly to the accessibility of the region for investors from overseas as they assess where they’re going to locate.

The recent opening of the Macroom/Baile Mhúirne N22 bypass, and the news that work will soon begin on the upgrade of the N28, adds significantly to the accessibility of the region for investors from overseas as they assess where they’re going to locate.

“The N22 bypass of Macroom makes a massive difference as it improves accessibility from the West. You’ve the Dunkettle Interchange, which is to be completed in the first quarter of next year, and it will revolutionise access from east of the city and from Dublin — so all of that helps.

“The big project which is going through the process at present is the N28 down to Ringaskiddy, which is home to a lot of our clients — so it’s great to see that going through.

“These are all pieces of infrastructure that will add to the environment and facilitate Cork and the South-West to continue growing over the next 10-15 years, and it’s that kind of investment which certainly helps when clients are looking at the region.”

Pride

The IDA Ireland regional manager takes pride in the fact that the agency’s track record is a selling point to get more investment into Ireland and the South-West.

“The footprint of companies that we have here is a big selling point for the region and, in particular, companies that have located here and been successful. Some of them have started off small and grown and are now employing substantial numbers of people.

“The quality of the environment and the quality of talent here are massive selling points for this region in particular.” He said the quality of people was a credit to the third level institutions — the likes of University College Cork (UCC) and Munster Technological University (MTU) — and the enterprise and education training boards.

“There’s a huge focus from third level institutions like MTU and UCC in Cork and the MTU facility in Tralee, where every student goes through a six- to nine-month placement as part of their degree course.

“That industry experience is invaluable and a huge percentage of those end up in employment with the companies they worked with on placement.

“That’s a testament to the quality of people first of all, but also to the structure of the courses and — in fairness — the companies go out to industry and ask what it is they’re going to be looking for now and over the next three to five years.

“There’s consistent industry ready and industry focused talent being produced so that track record stands us in good stead.”

The combination of factors — the strong stream of talented graduates coming from the third level sector, the improving roads infrastructure, as well as the green shoots in housing — all point to further progress and development in the region in the months to come and for the longer term, and this optimism will be welcomed by all across the region.

Positive announcements in 2023

A number of announcements in 2023 illustrate how well the IDA has performed in the South West.

A significant number of high-quality jobs will be located in Cork and in the South West, thanks to massive investment by a range of international companies locating in the region.

In 2023, the South West had the highest number of new foreign-direct investments.

There were 2,596 new FDI jobs and 1,536 job losses, which is a gain of 1,060.

This amounts to 2.3% growth, the highest of any IDA region. These include the following:

  • AMD (Cork/Dublin) announced plans for continued growth in Ireland through an investment of up to $135m over four years. This will fund several strategic R&D projects through the addition of up to 290 new roles.
  • AbbVie (Cork) announced a €60m investment in their manufacturing facility in Cork.
  • Qualcomm (Cork) announced €78m ($127m) investment to develop their R&D facility in Cork. It is expected to create 150 jobs.
  • Support Ninja (Cork) announced the establishment of a new CX Centre of Excellence in Cork City, providing 50 jobs over the next three years.
  • Movano, Alliance Strategies, Total Processing, QbDVision and Xenon Arc announced a combined 100 new jobs across Dublin, Galway, and Cork.
  • Blink Parametric (Cork) announced plans to double their presence in Cork, with the creation of 30 new jobs, the majority in their new City Quarter office in Cork City.
  • ProPhotonix (Cork) announced that it has expanded its production capacity in Cork following an investment of €500,000, doubling capacity at the Little Island facility.
  • PepsiCo (Cork) is nearing completion on a €127m investment at its Little Island manufacturing facility, which will see the opening of additional manufacturing capacity and further investment in its R&D campus.
  • GDG (Cork/Dublin) Gavin & Doherty Geosolutions (GDG), a leading global offshore wind-energy consultancy firm, announced its plans to recruit up to 500 professionals over the next five years to support the establishment of an engineering hub.
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