James Bannon
Question:245. Deputy James Bannon asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation his plans to create manufacturing jobs in County Longford; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8774/15]
View answerTuesday, 3 March 2015
Questions (245)
Written answers
The Strategy for the Manufacturing Sector, which I commissioned, and which was published in April 2013, identified that an additional 20,000 jobs can be created in the sector by 2016. A complementary report on the skills needs for the sector, which I had commissioned at the same time, was published by the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs and Forfás, and it identified a series of actions to enhance skills in the sector.
Arising from the Manufacturing Strategy and the Skills Report, there are now a range of initiatives in hand by relevant Agencies to drive the 2016 target, with key actions from both reports having been incorporated into the Action Plans for Jobs (APJ) for 2013, 2014 and 2015. Developing manufacturing was adopted as a Disruptive Reform in the APJ and one of the key actions is the delivery of a National Step Change initiative to strengthen Ireland’s manufacturing base across all firms engaged in manufacturing i.e. small and medium-sized firms and larger multi-nationals, particularly in higher-value sub sectors such as chemicals, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and food. In addition, a wide range of training and educational initiatives are underway by the relevant providers, such as Skillnets. Other actions include encouraging entrepreneurship, supporting startup activity, further improving our skills base, assisting our businesses to grow, improving access to finance by SMEs and developing and deepening opportunities from global investment.
The Strategy does not identify specific locations around the country for the expansion of the sector. However, a particularly attractive feature of manufacturing in Ireland is the fact that many of the present jobs are not in the main urban areas, but dispersed into regional locations, thereby providing a valuable employment focus in areas where alternative jobs are scarce. The further development of the sector will, of course, build on this key feature. However it would be a mistake to concentrate on a specific sector to drive job creation in a particular county. IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and the Local Enterprise Office (LEO) work with companies in all sectors and Longford can benefit from the supports offered by those bodies.
I am very conscious of the difficulty in attracting new industry to the regional centres. For this reason I have initiated the development of new Regional Strategies, to be rolled out this year, starting with the Midlands region. I am hopeful that this new approach will help to reinvigorate the industrial base of areas which are away from the main urban centres.
The Government is committed to strong job creation in all regions of the country. This policy is already working – for example the Midlands Region, which includes County Longford, has seen its unemployment rate reduced from 19.5% in Quarter 3 2011, shortly after this Government took office, to 13.1% at the end of last year, with 12,000 additional jobs in place there. Employment in Enterprise Ireland supported companies in Longford is up 17% since this Government has come in to office and I anticipate that the Regional Strategy will seek to build on that progress. While the current unemployment rate is still unacceptably high, the numbers on the Live Register have fallen by 18% since this Government came into office. It illustrates the significant progress which the Government has achieved and I am confident that the trend will continue downwards.