OVER THE PAST five years there have been almost 2,000 IDA Ireland sponsored site visits by potential investors to various locations throughout the country.

Unsurprisingly, Dublin came out on top with 973 visits since 2011, 242 of those were from last year alone.

The next counties with the highest number of visits were Cork (174) followed by Limerick (155).

Meanwhile, Galway saw the number of visits by potential investors more than double last year, jumping to 41 in 2015 compared to 19 in 2014. Most counties saw a significant increase in visits last year.

Carlow, Cavan, Donegal and Mayo were the only counties that saw a drop in visits.

Overall there were a total of 1,969 site visits from 2011 to 2015, here’s the breakdown:

(Click here for a larger image of this table).

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton said, “It is important to note that data on site visits is not an accurate measure of the level of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) activity in a region or county.

“That is partly because approximately 70% of all FDI investment won by IDA Ireland comes from its existing client base, rather than new companies.”

He added that “the Agency is committed to significantly increasing the number of investments outside Dublin”.

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