Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 12 July 2018
305. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation the number of members of each regional action plan implementation committee; the gender breakdown; when each committee was first established; and the number of meetings to date in tabular form. [32108/18]
View answerThe Regional Action Plan for Jobs (RAPJ) initiative is a central pillar of the Government's ambition to create 200,000 new jobs by 2020, 135,000 of which are outside of Dublin.
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 unemployment rate of each region within one percentage point of the national average.
The role of the Implementation Committees is to drive and monitor progress of each Regional Action Plan for Jobs. Committee meetings are a part in this role, however it is important to note that the number of meetings listed is not fully representative of Committee activity, nor engagement with my Department.
For example, the number does not take into account meetings of Committee members under other structures such as working groups, sectoral teams, action-monitoring groups, among others. Each region may operate different structures to deliver their Action Plan and this is largely at the discretion of the Committee and their Chairperson.
In April of this year, I met with the Chairpersons and representatives of each of the Regional Implementation Committees to review progress on the RAPJ and set out my intention to see the process and plans refreshed and refocused for the period to 2020. This involves taking into account changes in context for enterprise and employment creation that have come about since the original plans were developed, as well as learnings from the 2015-2017 RAPJ process.
Each Regional Implementation Committee is now leading a process, with support from my Department, to refresh their Plans around 5-10 ‘Strategic Objectives’ with enterprise development and job creation potential, supported by specific, measurable actions. These strategic objectives will be focused in particular around building on each region's own competitive advantage - developing areas that are already strong and/or exploring new sectoral opportunities, while also examining regional vulnerabilities and potential barriers to enterprise investment and entrepreneurial activity.
The number of members on each Regional Action Plan Implementation Committee, the gender breakdown of these groups, the date each committee was first established, and the number of meetings to date are detailed below in tabular form.
|
Implementation Committee |
No. of members |
Male |
Female |
Committee established |
Meetings to date |
|
Dublin |
34 |
22 |
12 |
19/09/2016 |
4 |
|
Mid East |
33 |
20 |
13 |
15/07/2016 |
1* |
|
Mid West |
32 |
20 |
12 |
09/03/2016 |
4 |
|
Midlands |
35 |
25 |
10 |
02/03/2016 |
6 |
|
North East |
33 |
25 |
8 |
25/04/2016** |
3*** |
|
North West |
37 |
30 |
7 |
25/04/2016** |
4*** |
|
South East |
50 |
38 |
12 |
26/11/2015 |
8 |
|
South West |
38 |
21 |
17 |
08/03/2016 |
3 |
|
West |
41 |
30 |
11 |
18/04/2016 |
4 |
*Enterprise champions also met in sub-committee formation
**denotes the date when a Committee for the North East/North West (Border region) was established. This Committee was subsequently divided into North East (26/1/17) and North West (3/2/17)
***includes 1 meeting of the joint North East/North West Committee
