Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 13 May 2020
432. Deputy James Browne asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation her plans to address the quality of jobs and the need for further investment in the south-east; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4101/20]
View answerSince becoming Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, I have made jobs and enterprise in the regions my top priority. I want to have a situation where all regions are enabled to realise their potential as contributors to economic growth.
Enterprise development and sustainable job creation in the regions is a key policy priority of this Government. A total of 26,700 more people in the South-East are in employment in Q4 2019 than in Q1 2015 when the Regional Action Plan for Jobs started, and unemployment in the South East has reduced from 11.7 percent to 6.8 percent in the same period.
I launched the South-East Regional Enterprise Plan in March 2019, one of nine new regional plans that build on the previous Regional Action Plans for Jobs. The South-East Plan has focused on a number of Strategic Objectives: building enterprise resilience; marketing the region; a regional engagement strategy on key infrastructure priorities; ensuring the South East is a learning region; and tourism growth. The Plan has commenced implementation, led by the Regional Steering Committee involving the Local Authorities, Enterprise Agencies, LEOs, tourism bodies, HEIs, ETBs, and others.
While we have had very good success to date through the Regional Enterprise Plan in reducing unemployment; in the context of Brexit and other global challenges we need to also focus on the creation of quality and sustainable jobs. My Department's Future Jobs Ireland initiative launched early last year with the Department of the Taoiseach, is our plan to meet these challenges. It includes ambitious targets and actions to drive this transformation of our economy.
In 2019, the South-East has 70 IDA Ireland supported companies employing 12,213 people, up 1.5% from 2018. The IDA will continue to work to identify opportunities for new investment or expansion in the South-East, promoting the region's existing concentrations of pharma, MedTech, financial services, AgriTech and high-value manufacturing activities.
In 2019, there were 19,868 people employed in 459 Enterprise Ireland supported companies in the South-East, up 2.5% from 2018. 'Powering the Regions' is Enterprise Ireland's new regional plan which sets out the focus of its activities regionally, including for the South East. There was also a net increase of 360 jobs supported by the South East LEOs during 2019.
The Government has put several funding streams in place to support regional development and the South-East has seen a number of successes under my own Department’s regional funding streams. These include over €12.1m under the Regional Enterprise Development Fund (REDF), €377,520 under the Regional Technology Clustering Fund and €345,320 under the LEO Competitive Fund.
Guided by the Regional Enterprise Plan, and with all regional stakeholders working together, the South-East is well positioned to realise its enterprise potential and see better quality, sustainable jobs and investment.
