Number of jobs in IDA/Enterprise Supported Projects.

This is a number that is used by the Irish State agencies as the excuse for their existence. The system works like this:

John Citizen gets an idea for a business and mortgages his house and risks everything he owns to start the business. He employs 20 people.

The man from Irish State agencies knocks on the door and tells John that they can give him €500 towards a new catalog. John says "thanks very much" and signs the mountain of paperwork.

The man from the Irish State agencies goes to his boss and they add the 20 jobs to the number of jobs in IDA/Enterprise Supported Projects. And where did the money come from? Probably the EU.

And John Citizen had been foolish enough to think that he had created the jobs!

The only jobs that these agencies create with 100% certainty are their own jobs.

Putting this number together each year is something they take very seriously.