As part of the Action Plan for Jobs: Regional initiative which was launched last February, the Government announced that up to €250 million would be made available over five years to support enterprise development in the regions. The €250 million package includes €150 million for a property investment programme by IDA Ireland to attract foreign direct investment into the regions. Up to €100 million will be made available to Enterprise Ireland for three new competitive calls which will be announced over the coming months.
The IDA’s property programme will build on the recent investment by the IDA in Letterkenny, Athlone and Waterford. Construction will commence in 2015 at sites in Sligo, Castlebar and Tralee, and further developments are planned for Galway, Dundalk, Limerick, Carlow, Athlone and Waterford in 2016 and 2017. These projects will account for approximately 30% of the funding available to the IDA, so there will be scope to support other IDA property-based investments that emerge in the regions.
The objective of the funding which will be administered by Enterprise Ireland is to bring forward fresh collaborative initiatives to boost enterprise growth and job creation in the regions through three competitive calls. The first of these calls will focus on community-driven enterprise initiatives. A second call will focus on the Local Enterprise Office network and on supporting innovative new ideas to support job creation through the LEOs. A third, broader, competitive regional call will support significant projects or initiatives to leverage identified enterprise capability in the regions.
In the case of all three funding calls, a collaborative approach, tangible jobs impact, enterprise start-up and scaling are amongst the criteria against which applications will be measured.
The €250 million funding which the Government announced for these new initiatives is a multi-annual package and, in accordance with the standard Estimates procedures, the amounts to be provided each year will be agreed with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and published in the Revised Estimates Volume on an annual basis.
