227. Deputy John Paul O'Shea asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment whether his Department will work with the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and Cork County Council to identify and service additional industrial and enterprise lands across Cork North-West, particularly in locations with access to the N20, N22 and N72. [66962/26]

Balanced regional development is a key focus of the work of my Department and our Enterprise Development agencies. In this regard, IDA Ireland is continuing its strong commitment to promoting FDI in regional locations as part of its 2025-29 strategy, Adapt Intelligently, and is targeting 550, or 55% of FDI projects outside Dublin over the strategy's lifetime.

Cork forms part of IDA Ireland’s South-West Region, alongside County Kerry, and is a key focus of the agency’s regional strategy. IDA Ireland is targeting 155 of the 550 targeted investments to the South-West Region.

The South-West region is actively promoted to prospective investors and is home to 245 IDA client companies employing 53,535 people, the highest level of IDA-supported employment outside Dublin. Employment among these companies has grown by 17% over the past five years, reflecting continued strength in foreign direct investment in the region. There are 228 IDA client companies employing 51,425 in the city and county. 20 of these are located across Cork County including 10 IDA client companies located across North Cork employing 1,623 across Millstreet, Kanturk, Charleville, Mallow, Mitchelstown, and Fermoy. The majority of FDI operations in the county are in manufacturing with significant capital expenditure associated with investments spanning Biopharma, Med tech, Technology, and Engineering companies.

As the Deputy is aware, the availability of suitable property and strategic sites is a critical component of the regional value proposition and can be the key differentiator in investment decisions in the regions from both new and existing clients as well as clients of Enterprise Ireland and the LEOs. Through its Regional Property Programme, IDA aims to provide agile, sustainable, flexible property solutions, providing certainty to clients in advance of demand. IDA maintains a focus on land banks to future proof the ability of the property portfolio to continue to support the project pipeline of investment which can have significant regional and national economic impacts.

IDA Ireland has approximately 250 hectares of lands available for marketing to IDA and EI clients in Cork and works closely with key stakeholders such as infrastructure service providers, Enterprise Ireland and Cork County Council, to ensure the identification and development of lands that are suitable for client investment. IDA also works with regional stakeholders and the private sector on opportunities to add to the supply of competitive property solutions in the Southern region.

IDA continues to market Cork city and county and the wider North-West region through its strategic landbanks and Business & Technology Parks while its attractive towns provide quality of life, more affordable housing and flexible working opportunities.

I can assure you that I am committed to driving a competitive, resilient and sustainable economy that supports enterprise, tourism and employment across all of Ireland’s regions.