Research Outline

Atlantic Economic Corridor Ireland

Goals

To understand growth and investment trends within the Atlantic Economic Corridor in Ireland.

Early Findings

  • The 10 local authorities in the AEC are Clare, Donegal, Galway City, Galway County, Kerry, Leitrim, Limerick, Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo.
  • The AEC divides the region into four areas to focus investment and growth focus. The North West is home to major FDI; Galway and the West to major life sciences, software, telecoms and gaming; the Mid-West to large multi-national companies; and the South West to tech, life sciences and business services.
  • The IDA Ireland gives some information about growth potential and reasons that Ireland leads in FDI. This infographic gives data about why Ireland has become a hub.
  • Even more data is available via this comprehensive report.
  • The IDA also publishes quarterly reports showing growth in the country as a whole.
  • The AEC website has case studies, but they are not especially data driven examples.
  • Examining the Local Enterprise Office websites for Donegal, Clare and Limerick showed us that all these websites are roughly similar and while they can give an insight on where the specific counties focus their efforts, no data is available on confirmed investment growth.
  • As a sample, we checked Limerick County's website to see if there any data there about economic growth. There is some data available, such as government investment in infrastructure and number of new jobs, but not necessarily a concrete 'market size' for each individual county.
  • Limerick's growth sectors are ICT, life sciences, engineering and content and consumer and business services. Food and film are also important sector to the county. Growth is mostly concentrated on the National Technology Base, adjacent the University of Limerick Campus and also the IDA Raheen Business Park close to Shannon International Airport.