81. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment the number of people employed by IDA Ireland client companies in the life sciences sector in Cork city and county in each of the years 2021 to 2025, in tabular form; his Department's assessment of the implications for Irish manufacturing sites of pricing and tariff agreements between the United States administration and pharmaceutical companies. [66805/26]

This Government recognises the strategic importance of the life sciences sector to the Irish economy and its substantial contribution to employment, investment and exports. Recent US Most-Favoured-Nation pricing agreements and related tariff measures represent a significant development for the global pharmaceutical industry.   My Department, together with other Departments and the State's enterprise agencies continue to monitor and assess developments closely.

We firmly believe that co-operation, engagement and constructive dialogue is the best way forward to address the challenges facing Ireland, the EU and the US.  It offers the best means of addressing shared challenges and supporting a stable and predictable environment for international trade and investment.

Continued collaboration with European colleagues is also supporting efforts to enhance medicines access, availability, and affordability in Europe. Stronger EU co-ordination and co-operation has a vital role in building up the resilience and innovation of the pharmaceutical sector and delivering enhanced access to medicines for patients.

This builds upon our continued productive partnership with the pharmaceutical industry at a domestic level, through which new Framework Agreements on the Supply and Pricing of Medicines for the period of 2026 – 2029 were agreed and signed in March 2026. These Agreements provide stability to the medicines reimbursement market for the State and for Industry.

Finally, the Programme for Government includes a commitment to develop Ireland’s first National Life Sciences Strategy. Officials in my Department are continuing work on the development of this Strategy, which will help ensure that the sector remains competitive, innovative and well positioned to capitalise on future growth opportunities.  It will also strengthen Ireland’s role as a trusted global location for life sciences investment, research and advanced manufacturing.

The figures of those employed by IDA client companies in County Cork in the life sciences sector for the period 2021 to 2025 is set out below.

Table 1. Lifesciences employment in county Cork 2021-2025