Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 March 2015
247. Deputy Frank Feighan asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if the new Action Plan for Jobs: Regional will specifically target towns like Ballinasloe, County Galway, in need of urgent investment; his plans to secure such investment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8863/15]
View answerThe aim of the Action Plan for Jobs is to help enterprises to create employment in all regions of the country. The latest Quarterly National Household Survey figures form the CSO show that employment has increased nationally by over 89,000 since the start of the Action Plan process in 2012. However, not all regions are yet fully experiencing the benefits of economic recovery. That is why the Government is placing an increased emphasis on supporting jobs growth in the regions. Last month, the Government announced details of the Action Plan for Jobs: Regional initiative which will seek to maximise the strengths and assets of each region to support enterprise growth and job creation. The Regional Action Plans will identify specific measures that can be taken to help each region to realise its economic potential, with a view to increasing the number of people at work in the region.
My objective is that six Regional Action Plans, including one for the West region, will be launched by July, with two remaining Plans in development at that stage.
It is not intended that Regional Action Plans will target every individual town for job creation or investment but, rather, that these plans will identify measures that can be taken to enable the region as a whole to build on its competitive strengths and increase the number of people at work the region.
In launching the Action Plan for Jobs: Regional initiative, I also announced that new funding of up to €250 million will be made available over the next five years to support job creation through enterprise growth in the regions. This includes €150 million for an IDA property investment programme to attract foreign direct investment into the regions, and €100 million to Enterprise Ireland to support indigenous enterprises to start up, grow and export.
As part of IDA’s capital investment programme, a total of nine locations were identified in the recent announcement as headline investments to occur in the period 2015-2017; these investments include facilities at Galway and Castlebar within the West Region.
The Enterprise Ireland funds will be distributed through three new competitive calls which will be announced by Enterprise Ireland over the coming months. The first of these calls will focus on community-driven enterprise initiatives, the second will focus on new ideas emerging from the Local Enterprise Offices and a third, broader, competitive regional call will support significant projects or initiatives to improve enterprise capability in the region. Funding will be allocated to the best ideas across the regions. Tangible jobs impact, enterprise start-up and scaling are amongst the criteria against which applications will be measured. Innovative collaborations among different regional agencies or stakeholders will also be favourably weighted.
