§ Mr. McGradyTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many visits have been made by inward investors to(a) Down district council, (b) Newry and Mourne district council and (c) Banbridge district council in each of the last five years; how many were repeat visits; and how many of these inward investors have located enterprises in each area. [122348]
§ Mr. PearsonThe following tables give details of Invest Northern Ireland (Invest NI)/Industrial Development Board for Northern Ireland (IDB) arranged visits and assisted inward investments in the Down, Newry and Mourne and Banbridge district council areas in the period April 1998 to March 2003.
Invest NI/IDB arranged visits by potential investors District council area/Visit 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 Down First 2 3 4 9 1 Repeat 3 0 4 2 2 Total 5 3 8 11 3 Newry and Mourne First 5 5 4 7 6 Repeat 2 5 2 2 1 Total 7 10 6 9 7 Banbridge First 1 0 0 0 0 Repeat 0 0 0 1 0 Total 1 0 0 1 0 Note:
Repeat visits are identified as repeat visits by the potential investor to Northern Ireland and may not necessarily represent a second or subsequent visit to a particular area.
339W
Invest NI/IDB assisted inward investments by visiting investors District council area 1998‒99 1999‒2000 2000‒01 2001‒02 2002‒03 Down 0 0 0 2 0 Newry and Mourne 1 0 1 0 1 Banbridge 0 0 0 0 0 Note:
Due to the time lag between visits and investment decisions, investments in a year may not necessarily match with visits in that year.