Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 July 2016
74. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the progress being made on section 4.1(c) of the programme for Government, regional spread of growth and jobs, in view of the fact there appears to be no evidence of any activity that would suggest that this issue is being treated as an urgent matter by the Government. [22793/16]
View answerSection 4.1 C) of the Programme for Partnership Government provides for a commitment to implement regional jobs plans, with local input, to help spread growth to all areas. 4.1 C) also provides that Local Enterprise Offices will be mandated to set county-specific targets on job creation.
I am fully committed to ensuring that the 8 Regional Action Plans for Jobs deliver on the ambitious targets set out in each plan. The aim of the 8 Plans is to strengthen and develop regional collaboration by encouraging state agencies, local authorities, regional bodies, higher education institutions, the private sector and communities to come forward with innovative ideas to boost job creation in their respective regions.
A key objective of each of the plans is to have a further 10 to 15 per cent at work in each region by 2020, with the aim of having the unemployment rate of each region within one per cent of the national average.
In total, 246,000 additional jobs are targeted in the Regional Action Plans for 2015-2020 inclusive. With 45,000 jobs created last year, this leaves 200,000 to be achieved by end 2020, as per the Programme for Government.
Achieving these ambitious targets at regional level requires a renewed focus on building on regional strengths, assets and areas of competitive advantage to develop the attractive and competitive environments for business to start, grow and succeed on international markets and to attract inward investment. That is what each of the regional Action Plans sets out to deliver. Collaboration between the private and the public sector has been a core element in each plan’s development, and will be central to each plan’s delivery.
Supporting the implementation of the Regional Action Plans is a fund of €250 million announced in February 2015 to be provided over the next five years to Enterprise Ireland and IDA.
This comprises a €150m Regional Property Programme delivered by IDA and up to €100 million available through three Enterprise Ireland competitive calls. These competitive calls are open to all regions, and are targeted at innovative and collaborative approaches to supporting local job creation. In June this year, I announced an initial allocation of €5 million in competitive funding for 48 local and regional initiatives across the country under two competitive regional funding calls administered by Enterprise Ireland; the LEO Competitive Fund and the Community Enterprise Initiative. Further competitive regional funding calls will be rolled out on a phased basis.
Delivery of each Plan is being overseen by a Regional Implementation Committee, with membership drawn from industry, local authorities, Enterprise Agencies, education sector and other key stakeholders and agencies. Each of the Regional Implementation Committees has met at least once, with the first meeting of the Dublin APJ Committee due to take place in September.
The Regional Action Plan process is underpinned by robust reporting arrangements, with twice yearly updates to be published in each region, setting out the progress on each of the actions due for delivery. The first Progress Reports on the implementation of the Plans, covering the period to end-June 2016 are currently being prepared and will be completed and published in Q3 2016.
The Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) were established in April 2014 as the “First Stop Shop” support service for micro and small businesses in each Local Authority area. Their aim is to promote entrepreneurship, foster business start-ups and develop existing micro and small businesses to drive job creation and to provide accessible high quality supports for their clients’ business ideas.
Under the terms of the Service Level Agreement between Enterprise Ireland and each Local Authority, the LEOs are required to produce annual Local Enterprise Development Plans (LEDPs) setting out clearly what the LEO intends to deliver over the following 12 months, including jobs directly related with each investment. The Plans identify and prioritise the key enterprise sectors and entrepreneurial capacity challenges that need to be targeted in each LEO’s functional area.
