IDA spent €17.2m on staff and offices overseas
The IDA spent almost €17.2m funding its operations overseas last year.
New figures provided by the Business Minister Heather Humphreys show it cost the IDA €11.2m in pay for staff at its network of overseas offices, along with €5.9m in non-pay costs for the offices.
Staff working in the IDA’s overseas offices were key in boosting employment levels at foreign-owned companies to 210,443 in 2017, an IDA spokeswoman said.
Its largest office in New York employs 12 people, followed by eight staff at Mountain View in California, and six staff in Irvine in California. It also has staff in Atlanta, Boston, Austin, Chicago, and Sao Paulo in Brazil.
IDA offices also include Paris and London, where it employs eight people, Frankfurt, Australia, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing, Seoul, Mumbai, and Japan.
In her written reply to Fianna Fáil’s Billy Kelleher, Ms Humphreys said: “IDA Ireland has 21 international offices located across the Americas, Asia and Europe. The agency does not provide the specific cost breakdown of individual offices as these details are sensitive in the context of international competition for foreign direct investment.”
The IDA employs 13 people earning salaries in excess of €100,000. Two of those people are based overseas earning salaries between €100,000 and €150,000.
A spokeswoman for the IDA said: “IDA Ireland fights to win business for Ireland across the world on a daily basis.”
