Written Answers Nos. 86-91
87. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he is satisfied that the small indigenous business sector continues to have ready access to various investment incentives; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2524/16]
View answerFirstly, I would like to draw the Deputy’s attention to the cross-Government initiative on supports to small business. Businesses can access the ‘Supporting SMEs’ online search tool that was launched last year. The search tool includes information on the range of Government supports, incentives etc. for accessing finance and credit. By answering eight questions, a small business will be able to:
- Find out which of the over 80 Government business supports from 27 different Government Departments, Agencies and Initiatives are available to them;
- obtain information on the range of Government supports for accessing credit;
- identify their nearest Local Enterprise Office where they can discuss the outcomes of the guide further;
- download all these filtered results into a document for their further use.
The ‘Supporting SMEs’ Online Tool is available at: www.actionplanforjobs.ie.
The Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) also act as the ‘first-stop-shop’ State support service for micro and small businesses in each local area. The LEOs provide advice and direction, covering all Government supports and requirements, to anyone who wishes to start or expand a business. They can also provide funding for projects that meet certain criteria, generally with regard to export potential, and other non-financial supports such as training and mentoring.
In addition, any business can use the LEOs to help them to access finance from Micro Finance Ireland (MFI), which offers loans of up to €25,000 to start-up, newly established or growing microenterprises (employing less than 10 people) with viable business propositions that do not meet the conventional risk criteria applied by the banks.
Enterprise Ireland is the state agency responsible for supporting the development of manufacturing and internationally traded services companies. They provide funding and supports for companies - from entrepreneurs with business propositions for a high potential start-up through to large companies expanding their activities, improving efficiency and growing international sales.
An example of Enterprise Ireland support is their High Potential Start Ups (HPSUs) programme which assists start-up businesses that have the potential to develop an innovative product or service for sale on international markets and the potential to create 10 jobs and €1m in export sales within 3 to 4 years of starting up.
As part of Budget 2013 the Government committed €175 million to the Seed and Venture Capital Scheme 2013-2018, with a target to leverage a further €525 million from the private sector making €700 million in additional capital available to high growth SMEs.
In addition, in September 2012 my Department launched the SME Credit Guarantee Scheme (CGS) under the Credit Guarantee Act 2012, to address specific market failures in lending to SMEs in response to calls from various business interests.
88. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the extent to which economic development, and as a consequence, job creation, will spread evenly throughout the country; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2525/16]
View answerEnterprise 2025, the Government’s long-term enterprise policy was launched in November last year. It is an ambitious strategy, with the objective of delivering growth over the next decade that is sustainable, led by strong export performance, builds on our sectoral strengths, and that is underpinned by innovation, productivity, cost effectiveness and competitiveness. We aim to build resilience into our economy so that we do not suffer again as we have done in the past number of years. Earlier this week we launched the fifth Action Plan for Jobs. A key objective of the Action Plan for Jobs process has been to rebuild our economy based on enterprise and entrepreneurship, talent, innovation and exports and provide a solid foundation for future growth. Irish industry has to been to the forefront of the economic recovery, with our enterprises and entrepreneurs innovating, developing and improving their products and services to meet the needs of customers in markets across the globe.
The 2016 Plan is the first in a new phase of the Action Plan for Jobs process, after the original target of 100,000 extra jobs by 2016 was achieved last year, 21 months ahead of schedule. Since the first Action Plan for Jobs was launched in Q1 2012, 135,800 more people are at work. The unemployment rate has fallen below nine per cent for the first time since 2008, down from a high of 15.1 per cent in early 2012 to 8.8 per cent in December 2015.
We set a target in 2012 to increase employment by 100,000 by 2016. We achieved that ambitious target and have now exceeded it, with employment growing and unemployment reducing in every region. We want to go further and to replace all the jobs lost during the recession and to realise sustainable full employment over the longer term. Enterprise 2025 sets out a clear statement of ambition, including that we will have 2.18 million people at work by 2020, with the unemployment rate down to 6 percent and that the unemployment in all regions not more than one percent above the national average.
Achieving this objective at regional level will require a renewed focus on building on the strengths of each region to develop the attractive and competitive environments for business to start, grow and succeed on international markets and to attract inward investment. We started the process of rebuilding the capacity of the regions with the launch of the Regional Action Plans for Jobs this year. In the case of seven of the regions for which we have published Regional Plans, we are now firmly moving into the implementation phase of the process and I met with the enterprise champions for each of the regions last week in Athlone.
Our objective is to establish vibrant ecosystems for entrepreneurship, to stimulate clusters of scale and international visibility in areas of strength and to ensure that Ireland and our regions continue to be the best places to succeed in business.
Through a partnership approach, with enterprise, representative bodies, the enterprise development agencies, Local Enterprise Offices and others, and based on a framework of measurable impacts, we will deliver a step change in enterprise performance and resilience and will see a significant increase in Irish owned companies of scale, contributing to Ireland’s reputation for innovation in international markets. The enterprise agencies and the LEOs will use their budgets in the optimal way to deliver on the potential for enterprise growth in the regions. In addition, earlier this year, we announced additional funding to support implementation of the regional Action Plans of €250m over the coming years. This comprises €150m of investment by IDA Ireland in advanced property solutions in the regions and €100m in competitive funding through Enterprise Ireland to support community enterprise initiatives, innovative initiatives by the Local Enterprise Offices and to support regional collaborative and clustering initiatives by public and private sector bodies and enterprises.
89. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the extent to which the requisite infrastructure for the development of the national economy will be met throughout the regions; if there is room for improvement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2526/16]
View answerThe availability of competitively priced world class infrastructure (energy, telecoms, transport, waste and water) and related services is critical to support economic growth and enterprise development. The recent economic recovery, return to growth, and the creation of more than 135,800 jobs since the first Action Plan for Jobs was launched, have all been supported by Ireland’s national economic infrastructure.
The competitiveness of that economic infrastructure is assessed by the National Competitiveness Council (NCC). As noted by the NCC, there was a significant reduction in public capital expenditure over the course of the economic downturn, from approximately €9 billion in 2008 to €3.4 billion in 2013, although weaker demand for infrastructural services (e.g., reduced road traffic, and declines in energy demand) partially mitigated the impact of this reduction. The Council state that a range of international benchmarks, mostly qualitative in nature, are available comparing the stock and quality of infrastructure in Ireland against our key competitors. In terms of the perceptions about the quality of Ireland’s infrastructure vis-à-vis other countries Ireland’s score has improved since 2010, but perceptions of quality in Ireland still lag the OECD average and are well behind leading performers.
The NCC believes that there is now a need to increase public capital expenditure, and that public investment in infrastructure should be prioritised and targeted at those areas that can have the greatest positive impact upon Ireland’s competitiveness.
In September 2015, the Government published Building on Recovery: Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2016-2021, which presents the Government’s new €42 billion framework for infrastructure investment in Ireland over the period to 2021. The Capital Plan reflects the Government’s commitment to supporting strong and sustainable economic growth and raising welfare and living standards for all, and in all regions.
As the Capital Plan states, public investment will have a positive impact on job creation across the country and in almost every sector of the economy. It will serve to underpin the Government’s commitment to seeing full employment of 2.18 million people by 2020 as set out in Action Plan for Jobs 2016. Investment in infrastructure, such as transport and communication networks, energy and water, is an important enabler of economic growth and the wider State sector, including the commercial State-bodies, has an important role to play in these areas. In addition, significant investments are planned to support enterprise and innovation. IDA Ireland has reported the highest level of employment in its client companies in its 67 year history. Total employment at overseas companies now stands at 187,056 people, the highest level on record. Enterprise Ireland has reported that total employment in its client companies has reached 192,223 - a record high for the agency. Investment in enterprise and innovation included in the Capital Plan will continue to support and grow the numbers employed in these foreign-owned and indigenous firms. Further, over the six years of the Capital Plan, it is estimated that around 45,000 construction jobs will be sustained through the Exchequer investments in physical infrastructure alone.
Regarding the regions, earlier this month the Government launched the seventh of eight regional jobs plans to be published, as part of a new €250 million regional jobs strategy. Ensuring the regions are adequately served by economic infrastructure is key to achieving these Plans’ ambition.
90. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the most regularly sought after skills in the workplace; how he will meet such requirements in the short to medium term; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2527/16]
View answerAs the economy expands and grows, there is a growing skills demand from employers across many sectors of the economy, in both the public and private sectors. The Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN) advises the Government on the current and future skills needs of the economy and has quantified the current and future skills requirements in a number of sectors and occupations. The EGFSN publishes the National Skills Bulletin on an annual basis which highlights the current skills shortages by occupation. A review of the Skills Bulletin for each of the four years 2012-2015 highlights the following key trends:
- There are skills shortages for Professionals and Associate Professionals across sectors in the areas of ICT, Engineering and Science (predominantly in the biopharmaceutical, medical devices and food processing sectors).
- The shortage of ICT talent is potentially significant for a number of sectors such as Software, Data Analytics, Financial Services, Distribution).
- There are also Professionals skills shortages in specific sectors such as Financial Services, Health (medical practitioners and nurses) and Construction (surveyors) - the latter only beginning to exhibit a skills shortage in 2014.
- As the economy has picked up, the Freight Transport, Distribution & Logistics sector has begun to exhibit skills shortages.
- Multilingual skills were identified for Associate Professionals in ICT and Sales & Marketing, and for Administrative staff in Financial Services and Freight Transport, Distribution & Logistics.
In summary, the greatest skills demand is for Professionals, Associate Professionals and people with multilingual skills.
The EGFSN also publishes detailed reports on the future skills needs of particular sectors, with forecasts of the demand for specific occupations. These reports are available on the EGFSN’s website, www.skillsireland.ie.
The Government is responding to the skills demands by ensuring that State supports for skills development are targeted at the areas where demand is highest, for example, through the ICT Skills Action Plan, and Springboard and Momentum courses. Through initiatives such as these, the Government has deepened its engagement with employers to identify, design and deliver relevant courses which meet the skills needs of the enterprise sector.
There are, increasingly, overlaps in the skills required across different sectors and occupations. In addition to sector-specific skills, transversal skills and cross-sectoral skills are increasingly being sought by employers. The type of skills in demand in this respect include creativity, innovation, entrepreneurialism, analytical thinking, team working, communications and business acumen, ICT skills and foreign language skills.
The Government will shortly publish a new National Skills Strategy which will set out our objectives for the next decade to ensure that the skills needs of the economy are met.
91. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if it is too late for persons to be considered for or to apply for automatic entitlements for lands declared under the 2015 basic payment scheme; if it is, will the Scottish derogation scheme be available in 2016 to allow persons to apply for automatic entitlements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2392/16]
View answerThe closing date for receipt of applications for the allocation of payment entitlements under “Scottish Derogation” was the 29th May 2015. This closing date was widely advertised in the national media. Under EU Regulations, allocation of payment entitlements under the Scottish Derogation is only permissible under the 2015 Basic Payment Scheme. If the persons involved have any extenuating circumstances relating to the non submission of the required application under the Scottish Derogation measure, they should submit the details of their case in writing to the Scottish Derogation Section, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Knockmay, Co Laois.
