Announcing its end-of-year statement last week, Enterprise Ireland said its client base created more than 18,800 new jobs during 2018, which was a 4.4% increase on the previous year.

This brings the total number of people employed by Enterprise Ireland-supported companies to just over 215,200, which is the highest in the 20-year history of the state agency.

Interestingly, almost two thirds (61%) of these jobs were created outside of Dublin, with companies such as Chanelle in Galway making big jobs announcements during the year.

Food industry

The food industry remains the back bone of Enterprise Ireland’s client base, accounting for close to 50% of all jobs.

During 2018, Enterprise Ireland said companies in the meat processing sector reported jobs growth of 5%, while other companies in the food industry saw jobs growth of 3%.

These results suggest that we have yet to see a significant impact of Brexit on Irish companies

Enterprise Ireland chief executive Julie Sinnamon said the jobs growth in 2018 was all the more impressive when taken in the context of the ongoing Brexit uncertainty and currency volatility in sterling.

“These results suggest that we have yet to see a significant impact of Brexit on Irish companies.

"However, as the 29 March deadline approaches, and uncertainty continues, we would anticipate that 2019 will be a challenging period for some Irish exporters,” said Sinnamon.

Support funding

The Enterprise Ireland boss warned that as many as 25,000 jobs would be vulnerable to a no-deal Brexit scenario, particularly in the food industry where WTO tariffs would have a major impact.

Enterprise Ireland said it had provided €74m in support funding to 525 of its clients that are heavily exposed to Brexit during 2018.

The state body added that 85% of its clients have now taken some form of Brexit mitigation actions, mostly by trying to diversify into new markets.

In 2017, the UK accounted for 44% of exports for Enterprise Ireland supported companies. This figure reduced to 34% in 2018, with strong growth in exports to Eurozone markets.

Enterprise Ireland, will be exhibiting at the Agri Careers Expo on 14 February. CL