Galway punching above its weight in attracting jobs

Galway is punching above its weight in terms of attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which results in job creation, according figures supplied by the Industrial Development Agency (IDA).

As expected, Cork and Dublin are way out in front in terms of the numbers of IDA-supported foreign companies that chose to visit those cities with a view to setting up a base in Ireland.

And Cork and Dublin are streets ahead in terms of the numbers of jobs created by IDA-supported foreign companies, compared to all other counties.

But Galway is the ‘next best’, and has fared far better than the likes of Limerick and Waterford in terms of the numbers of jobs created here last year.

Galway’s good level of job creation from IDA companies comes despite both Limerick and Waterford having been visited by executives from foreign companies who are on official recognisance visits to the country last year.

Jobs Minister Richard Bruton confirmed that there were just 18 IDA-sponsored visits to Galway in 2012 compared with 38 visits to Cork, 196 visits to Dublin, 30 visits to Limerick and 26 visits to Waterford.

But, despite the relatively low levels of visits, the level of job creation in Galway in the same year was quite high and shows that the return on jobs to official visits ratio is remarkable.

In 2012, some 859 new jobs that were IDA supported were created in Galway, which is more than double the amount of Limerick (400) and many multiples of the 75 jobs created in Waterford.

It was nowhere near as many as Dublin (6,389 jobs in 2012), or Cork, which won 1,979.

In contrast to the 18 visits to Galway by potential investors last year, counties Leitrim, Longford, Meath, Monaghan, Roscommon, between them, received nil visits in 2012.

The figures show that Galway consistently outperformed Limerick and Waterford in terms of IDA-supported jobs creation. In 2011, for example, Galway won 1,047 IDA-supported jobs while Limerick got just 233 in the same year and Waterford only got 72.