Help Given To Irish Firms To Boost Business

The Government is targeting the €80billion global supply chain of multinational companies in Ireland in an effort to help Irish companies win new business, grow exports and ultimately create new jobs, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton TD announced today.

This is one of a series of initiatives driven by a new Enterprise Ireland/IDA senior management team established by Minister Bruton under the Action Plan for Jobs 2012.

Today's announcement took place in Accenture, an IDA client company, which provides an example of the benefits that can be derived by Irish companies from engagement with multinationals. To date, Accenture has engaged with more than 17 Irish companies and a number have won new contracts from this engagement, including Daon, a leading Irish software biometric identity management company.

Minister Bruton said: "A key part of the Government's plan for jobs and growth is ensuring that we derive more benefit, as an economy, from the amazing group of world-leading multinational companies that have located operations in Ireland.

"Targeting increased links between these multinationals and our innovative Irish exporting companies can achieve two important goals: firstly, it will open major opportunities for Irish companies to secure more business and exports as part of an €80billion global supply chain; and, secondly, it will help us attract more investment from multinationals, by making the capabilities of Irish companies into a key selling point. Even a 5% increase in global sourcing by multinationals from Irish companies would lead to annual benefits of over €500million for Irish companies. I am determined to ensure that ambitious targets are set and met for this important initiative."