merrion street

The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD, will on Sunday (30 October) travel to the eastern USA for a 5-day FDI mission during which he will hold one-on-one meetings with senior executives of 19 US companies to discuss proposals for investment and job-creation in Ireland. The trade mission to New York, New Jersey and Boston is organised by the IDA. The Minister will also hold three interviews with major US media outlets to tell the international community that Ireland is open for business.

The 19 companies who the Minister is meeting include:

· 7 companies in the life sciences sector, 5 IT companies, and 5 financial services companies.

· A combination of household-name world-leading companies, mid-tier and high-growth emerging companies

· Companies with combined annual revenues of almost $500million, and employing a total of over 1.2million people worldwide

· Over half the companies already have operations in Ireland, employing a total of 20,000 people, while the remainder are targets of the government

The Minister will also conduct interviews with major US media outlets: the Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones, the New York Times and Fox Business Network, and will attend dinner events with key business leaders, to communicate to the United States the message that Ireland is open for business.

Speaking before his departure, the Minister said:

"This government’s plan for job-creation recognises that there is no one solution for the crisis we face. While radical reform is necessary in many areas, one key strategy on our road to recovery will be to build on the strengths which have served us so well for so long.

"There are approximately 500 US companies in Ireland, which directly employ over 100,000 people and account for over 70% of total employment by foreign companies here. Technology, financial services and life sciences are sectors where US investment in Ireland has traditionally been strong: 8 of the top 10 US ICT corporations, 9 of the top 10 global pharmaceutical corporations, and 17 of the top 25 global medical devices corporations have operations in Ireland.

"My aim now is to broaden and deepen that, by increasing the number of US companies in Ireland and the number of people they employ, and also by ensuring that they locate more pioneering, high-value activities in Ireland rather than elsewhere in their global operations.

"That is why I am travelling to the key centres of Boston and New York to meet senior executives of 19 companies selected by the IDA as targets for potential investment and job-creation in Ireland. My hope is that I will be able to announce concrete plans for further jobs and investment in Ireland from these companies in the near future".