Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 13 May 2015
27. Deputy Seán Kyne asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the level of analysis undertaken by his Department, and agencies under the remit of his Department on the availability of existing and possible future needs for infrastructure, such as roads, public transport and broadband in the western region, which are necessary to encourage investment, and promote indigenous job creation. [18411/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraSustained investment in economic infrastructure to underpin employment growth has been one of the key priorities of the Action Plan for Jobs. The soon to be published Capital Investment Programme along with other Government strategies such as the National Broadband Strategy will identify key infrastructural priorities to be addressed within the constraints of available resources.
The availability of competitively priced world class infrastructure (energy, broadband telecoms, transport, waste and water) and related services is critical to support economic growth and job creation.
My Department and its agencies engage on a continuous basis with other Departments and agencies and the private sector on the particular infrastructure needs required to support enterprise development and job creation in all regions of the country including the Western Region. In June 2014, Forfás made a submission to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform’s review of capital investment outlining the main capital priorities for the period to 2020 to support enterprise development and job creation.
Earlier this year, the Government announced details of the Regional Action Plan for Jobs initiative which seeks to build on the strengths and assets of each region to maximise enterprise growth and job creation. My objective is that six Regional Action Plans, including one for the West region, will be launched by July, with the two remaining plans in development at that stage.
In launching the Action Plan for Jobs: Regional initiative, I also announced that new funding of up to €250 million will be made available over the next five years to support job creation through enterprise growth in the regions. This includes €150 million for an IDA property investment programme to attract foreign direct investment into the regions, and €100 million to Enterprise Ireland to support indigenous enterprises to start up, grow and export. As part of IDA’s capital investment programme, a total of nine locations were identified in the recent announcement as headline investments to occur in the period 2015-2017 - including facilities at Galway and Castlebar within the West Region. The Enterprise Ireland funds will be distributed through three new competitive calls which will be announced by Enterprise Ireland over the coming months. Funding will be allocated to the best ideas across the regions. Tangible jobs impact, enterprise start-up and scaling are amongst the criteria against which applications will be measured. Innovative collaborations among different regional agencies or stakeholders will also be favourably weighted.
