Overseas companies initially contacted by job creation initiative Connect Ireland have created more than 7,000 jobs after starting operations here, according to a new analysis.
The study was conducted by the law firm Arthur Cox, who are representing Connect Ireland in its ongoing dispute with the IDA.
Privately owned but government-backed jobs initiative Connect Ireland is now in arbitration with the government agency, which focuses on its claims that in many cases contacts it originally made with overseas companies were being claimed by the IDA became.
That Sunday independent reported last month that IDA could face legal fees of up to €7m after the arbitrator ruled that it had tampered with its agreement with Connect Ireland.
The arbitration between the two had heard allegations that senior government officials had lied and falsified records to steal “clues” from private job creation initiative Connect Ireland, which IDA strongly denied.
The state agency has now hit back, claiming that she was owed more than €1.2million for jobs that Connect Ireland had been paid for but had fizzled out.
But the new Arthur Cox study, commissioned by Connect Ireland, claims thousands of jobs have been created by companies first contacted under the scheme – although the scheme itself has since been discontinued as Connect Ireland claims that the operation was effectively undermined by IDA.
The Succeed in Ireland initiative, launched in 2012 as part of a jobs drive, was spearheaded by businessman Terry Clune’s Connect Ireland and overseen by IDA Ireland on behalf of the Government.
The arbitration process between the two had heard allegations that state agency officials had lied and falsified records
The goal was set to create 5,000 jobs. IDA only conceded that 500 jobs had been created under the contract, but Connect Ireland has argued in arbitration that this was because it was not credited with many of the tips they originally brought to the agency .
Arthur Cox’s new study claims that companies originally linked through links in the Irish diaspora under the Succeed in Ireland initiative had created 7,328 jobs here after three years of establishing themselves in Ireland.
Asked for comment, an IDA spokesperson said: “The dispute between Connect Ireland and IDA Ireland is the subject of ongoing arbitration arising out of a contract between the parties that existed between 2012 and 2017.
“IDA Ireland is demanding payment of more than €1.2 million for jobs that Connect Ireland was paid for but did not materialize or sustain. In the ongoing arbitration, IDA Ireland denies any liability to Connect Ireland under the Contract.”
Arthur Cox’s study is believed to have based this total on an analysis of publicly filed accounts as well as later IDA announcements. It includes jobs created in SME companies across the country, as well as a large number of jobs created by large firms such as Parexcel, Datadog and Varonis.
Thousands more jobs have since been created by these companies, but the terms of the Connect Ireland contract – which allowed so-called “connectors” to be paid for the company-created jobs they brought into the scheme – only counted for the first three years after arrival of foreign companies in Ireland.
