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Jobs Minister Richard Bruton will travel to the eastern USA on Sunday 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

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 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.

Read the full press release here.