Jennifer Murnane O'Connor
Question:59. Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment for an update on the south east enterprise plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5510/24]
View answerThursday, 8 February 2024
Questions (59)
Written answers
Balanced regional enterprise development continues to be a key focus of mine and this Government and is reaffirmed in the White Paper on Enterprise. My Department contributes to this agenda in several ways, including through the development, implementation and oversight of nine Regional Enterprise Plans.
The South-East Regional Enterprise Plan is overseen and monitored at a regional level by a Steering Committee made up of stakeholders from Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford.
Patsy Carney is the Chair of the Plan, with Richard Hickey acting as interim Programme Manager. Together they are driving implementation of the Plan on the ground.
There has been a lot of progress in the South-East and my Department, through Enterprise Ireland, is providing funding to support projects. Under the Regional Enterprise Innovation Scoping Scheme, funding totalling €785,000 has been secured for eight scoping projects across the Engineering, Financial Services, Sustainability and GreenTech, and Life Sciences sectors. Many of these projects are now preparing further applications for funding from the Smart Regions Enterprise Innovation Scheme.
A South-East Offshore Wind Stakeholder Group has been established to maximise the economic opportunity presented by offshore wind development and to facilitate meaningful engagement between ports, local authorities, industry and enterprise agencies alongside the Higher Education and Training Institutes.
Elsewhere, the South East Technological University has provided significant funding to lead four new pre-accelerators linked closely to the region’s Technology Gateways. This investment in pre-acceleration will be the nucleus for enhanced Smart Specialisation-based activities in the region.
My Department oversees implementation of the Plans at the national level and I, together with Ministers Calleary and Richmond, attended the Regional Enterprise Plans National Oversight Group meeting on 26 October 2023. Regional Enterprise Plan Chairs were in attendance, together with representatives from the enterprise agencies, the County and City Management Association, the Head of the LEO network, and other organisations with a focus on regional enterprise development. Two meetings of this Group are planned for 2024.
A topic for discussion at that meeting was the provision of funding to implement new enterprise projects aligned to the Regional Enterprise Plans.
As the Deputy will be aware, my Department has secured up to €145 million for the Smart Regions Enterprise Innovation Scheme to support projects aligned to those Plans. This builds on the €126 million my Department has already allocated in regional enterprise funding.
The first call of €35 million under the new scheme, which is co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund, is now open on the Enterprise Ireland website. I expect that there will be up to four calls under this fund over the coming years. I encourage innovative projects in the South-East to apply.
Finally, the Deputy may be interested to note that my officials are currently reviewing the nine REP progress reports, which will document implementation to end of Q3 2023. These reports are expected to be published in Q1 this year.