Regional development is an important strategic objective for my Department. The enterprise support agencies each have specific operational activities and programmes tailored to encourage enterprises and to attract new jobs to regional locations. These help drive the delivery of core elements of the national spatial strategy. The Government's decentralisation initiative also demonstrates a commitment to help regional towns build scale and create opportunities that will increase their attractiveness for investment.
There have been fundamental changes in the operation of individual agencies that reflect a serious intention to address regional development from an enterprise perspective. In the realm of planning and advice, Forfás provides important guidance concerning national development investments. This is essential analysis that contributes to making regional centres more competitive and attractive locations. Forfás also provides the secretariat to the enterprise strategy group under the chairmanship of Mr. Eoin O'Driscoll. One of the tasks of the group is to consider new enterprise policy options, which, among other factors, recognise the desirability of regional balance.
In early 2001, IDA Ireland outlined its commitment to regional development in its strategy document. This initiated a regional development process whereby it strengthened its network of regional offices by allocating key sectoral responsibilities to regional locations such as Waterford, Athlone and Sligo. About 100 staff are now based in ten offices whose functions are aligned with regional development priorities, such as building flagship business parks and strategic sites to provide high-quality facilities to accommodate high-value, large-scale projects.
On the employment front, 44% of new greenfield jobs were delivered in the BMW region during 2002, representing a creditable performance given global business difficulties. The agency is currently reviewing its strategy. Regional development and programme development options to meet national spatial strategy objectives have featured prominently in the planning work undertaken to date.