The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) has unveiled plans to invest €500 million in the State’s five regional cities — Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford and Kilkenny — with a focus on creating new places to work and live while regenerating the city centres.
The State investment fund, which is part of the National Treasury Management Agency, has a mandate to invest to support economic activity and employment.
It said the investments would also “focus on scaling-up successful start-up businesses” to reach €1 billion unicorn valuations within five years.
“While ISIF’s statutory mandate to invest for a commercial return in investments that support economic activity and investment in Ireland remains unchanged, the focus of the new strategy will be on long-term transformational investments addressing key strategic challenges facing the country,” it said, noting these include climate action, housing and enabling infrastructure, scaling indigenous businesses, and food and agriculture.
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The strategy will also see ISIF fund the delivery of 25,000 new homes across Ireland by 2030 through a range of equity and debt investments. This follows on from a previous commitment to invest €950 million in housing to deliver 16,000 new homes in the coming years.
“We are planning a material step-up in our regional investments with a new initiative to unlock the economic potential of our five regional cities by backing transformational projects in each,” ISIF director Nick Ashmore said.
“This programme will generate economic benefits, supporting employment and making Ireland a more sustainable, competitive and attractive place both for the people who live here and the employers who can create jobs for them,” he said.
ISIF also has plans to invest €1 billion in transformational climate action investments that will support the Republic’s transition to a net zero low-carbon economy.
Welcoming the announcement, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said he was pleased to see that a cornerstone of the strategy is a €500 million city-specific investment programme to unlock the full economic potential of Ireland’s five regional cities of Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford and Kilkenny.
