The number of visits to Clare facilitated by Ireland’s inward investment promotion agency has hit a five-year low.
The Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment has revealed that for the first time since 2020, fewer than 20 trips of this nature took place in the county last year.
The Industrial Development Agency, or IDA, is a semi-state body that encourages foreign direct investment through a variety of services including arranging visits of multinational companies to strategic sites.
A total of 514 visits were recorded nationwide last year which was up 10% on 2024.
Of these, 247, or 48%, took place in Dublin.
Clare saw 19 visits last year which was down from 21 the previous year and was the lowest figure for the county since 2020 when just 16 IDA-backed visits occurred here.
It means the county’s share of visits has dropped by 4.5% to 3.7% in a year.
Responding to a parliamentary question from Sinn Féin TD David Cullinane, the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Peter Burke says “regional development is a key focus of our Programme for Government and is central to the work of my Department and our enterprise development agencies”.
He says “IDA Ireland is continuing its strong commitment to regional development as one of four key strategic objectives of its current strategy, “Adapt Intelligently” and is targeting 550 of a total 1,000 investments, or 55%, in the regions over the period between 2025 and 2029″.
He’s added that “in 2025, the first year of the strategy IDA secured 323 investments, 183, or 57% of which were in regional locations”.
