Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 24 October 2019
43. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan asked the Minister for Rural and Community Development the number of jobs created under the Action Plan for Rural Development in north-west County Cork; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43817/19]
View answerThe Action Plan for Rural Development was published in January 2017 as a whole-of-Government initiative to support the economic and social progress of rural Ireland. The coordinated approach of the Action Plan is achieving benefits in terms of increased employment in the regions and increased investment in projects and communities across the country.
Specific figures for job creation are not available from at the level requested by the Deputy. However, overall employment in the regions continues to grow, with an increase of over 146,000 people employed outside of Dublin between 2015 and 2018. This surpasses the target in the Action Plan of increasing employment by 135,000 by 2020.
More than 60% of the 18,846 new jobs created by Enterprise Ireland’s client companies in 2018 were outside of the Dublin region, while over 132,000 jobs in IDA client companies are now based outside of Dublin, representing 58% of client companies' employment.
The Regional Enterprise Action Plans, which are overseen by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, play a particularly important role in supporting job creation in the regions. My own Department also contributes directly to job creation in rural areas through programmes such the Town and Village Renewal Scheme, the Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Scheme and LEADER.
The Rural Regeneration and Development Fund, which will provide investment of €1 billion into rural areas over the next ten years, will also make a significant contribution to job opportunities for people who live in rural Ireland. To date, €86 million has been allocated from the Fund to 84 projects which will have a transformational effect on towns, villages and rural areas across Ireland. I announced a further call for proposals last April and applications received by the deadline of 6 August are currently being assessed.
