Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 2 May 2024
87. Deputy Willie O'Dea asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform for an overview of the progress made to date under National Strategic Outcome 5 of the National Development Plan 2021-2030; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19812/24]
View answerAs Minister for Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform I am responsible for setting the overall capital allocations across Departments and for monitoring monthly expenditure at Departmental level. The responsibility for the management and delivery of individual investment projects or sectoral policy strategies, within the allocations agreed under the National Development Plan (NDP), rests with the individual sponsoring Department in each case. Each Minister is responsible for deciding on the priority programmes and projects that will be delivered under their remit within the NDP and for setting out the timelines for delivery.
The NDP contains expenditure commitments for a range of strategic investment priorities which will contribute towards the achievement of these NSOs, including NSO 5 which relates to a Strong Economy supported by Enterprise, Innovation and Skills.
NSO 5 aims to maintain and enhance Ireland's status as a competitive, innovative and resilient enterprise base providing high-quality jobs and employment opportunities for people to live and prosper in all regions. Over 16,843 new jobs were created in 2023 in IDA supported client companies. The numbers directly employed in the multinational sector in Ireland were 300,853. The existing base of FDI has shown continued resilience and more than half (53%) of investments went to regional locations.
Employment in client companies of Enterprise Ireland increased to a total of 225,495 in 2023, the highest ever recorded. The total number of jobs created was 15,530. Eight out of nine regions recorded net jobs growth, with the West region (+5%), the North-East region (+5%) and the North-West region (+4%) performing particularly strongly. 68% of new jobs created in 2023 in companies supported by Enterprise Ireland were located outside the Dublin region.
In the Higher Education sector, a number of programmes and projects continue to be advanced to deliver on ambitions for Ireland’s higher education sector as outlined in NSO 5. These projects will expand capacity in higher education institutions, will support a pipeline of talent and skills aligned with national and regional needs, and will also upgrade existing infrastructure to improve the campus environment– taking account of energy efficiency, as well as best practice in teaching and learning. Some examples of projects completed under NSO 5 in the Higher Education sector include the Technological University Dublin, Grangegorman and Phase 2 UL Glucksman Library in Limerick.
Further details of projects and programmes being delivered under NSO 5 can be found in the latest capital investment tracker, which I published yesterday and provides a composite update on the progress of all major investments with an estimated cost of greater than €20 million. Accompanying the tracker, the myProjectIreland interactive map details projects across the country and provides details on specific projects by county, and contains smaller investments such as schools and social housing projects. Search facilities also allow citizens to view projects in their regional area, by city, by county or by eircode.
The Project Ireland 2040 capital investment tracker and myProjectIreland interactive map are all available on gov.ie/2040.
