Seán Sherlock
Question:379. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of jobs created by the IDA in rural hubs based on Our Rural Future. [36003/23]
View answerTuesday, 25 July 2023
Questions (379)
Written answers
As the Deputy will be aware, ‘Our Rural Future – Rural Development Policy 2021-2025’ is being overseen by the Department of Rural and Community Development as a whole-of-Government policy for the sustainable development of rural Ireland. It was launched in March 2021 and contains more than 150 commitments for delivery across Government over a five year period as the most ambitious and transformational policy for rural development in Ireland for decades.
Regional Development is a key plank of the Government's enterprise policy, as set out in the White Paper on Enterprise, and is the key focus of my Department's leadership of the Regional Enterprise Plans. Similarly, the IDA’s strategy 'Driving Recovery & Sustainability, 2021-2024', has an ambitious target of 800 investments over the lifetime of its current strategy and it will target half of all investments to regional locations. In this regard, IDA Ireland continues to highlight flexible/remote working opportunities across its client base, to both existing and new IDA client companies, as vehicles for Job Creation and Investment into Regional locations across Ireland. IDA promotes flexible/remote working to their client companies by showcasing talent availability across Ireland’s regions and highlighting the availability of Ireland’s network of enterprise hubs.
IDA Ireland also continues to collaborate with regional stakeholders to drive greater take up of remote working opportunities across all regions. IDA continues to promote the Connected Hubs and the Community and Enterprise Association of Ireland networks to new and existing clients.
Moreover, IDA is also supportive of training initiatives undertaken by local ETBs and clients on how to operate and manage in remote working environments. In 2019, Laois Offaly Educational Training Board in partnership with IDA Ireland developed and launched a training programme for employers and employees to develop skills needed to lead remote teams and to thrive in a remote work environment. The programme has successfully trained over 2,000 individuals and has supported the creation of hundreds of jobs that can be performed from anywhere in Ireland.