Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 22 March 2017
300. Deputy Eamon Scanlon asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the solutions the Government and its agencies have in place to tackle unemployment in rural Ireland in view of the delay in awarding of contracts under the national broadband plan. [14528/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Irish economy has come through an extraordinary period over the last ten years. Our enterprise base is more competitive, export oriented and more innovative. Jobs are being created by enterprises in every region and every sector in the country. The Action Plan for Jobs process, which I and my Department co-ordinate across Government, has been very successful.
Almost 206,000 more people are at work since the first Plan was launched in 2012 - that is an average of just under 40,000 per annum over the last five years. We want to add up to 45,000 more jobs in 2017.
As Minister, I want two of every three jobs created in the regions. I will shortly announce a competitive call for innovative proposals to boost regional growth, with funding of up to €60 million.
We will promote the development of a network of eHubs across the regions, beginning with an audit of all existing and potential hubs.
EI’s target is to add 15,000 gross new jobs in 2017, support 250 large scale investments, win an extra 1,000 sales contracts and increase exports to €23 billion.
The Local Enterprise Offices support a net increase in employment of over 3,800 in 2016 and we are targeting a similar increase in 2017.
We are also developing an integrated communications plan to raise awareness of the range of enterprise supports available and how to access them.
We also want to ensure that all sections of the workforce contribute to their full potential and as Minister, I am placing an emphasis on female participation and female entrepreneurship in particular. We are focusing on the older workers in the labour market through a combination of measures. This includes a new draft Code of Practice to set out best practice in managing the engagement between employers and employees in the run up to retirement and measures to support senior entrepreneurship.
We will launch a toolkit for employers and employees to engage in workplace innovation and roll out a pilot programme.
We will harness the creativity of our citizens to address these challenges and opportunities. Creativity and our strength in design can give us a competitive advantage in all sectors of the economy from manufacturing to retail.
Maximising the retail potential of our town centres is vital and we are committed to developing a template for retail development in our towns.
I am also focusing on new opportunities arising from the digitalisation of the economy and society. We will develop a whole of Government approach to realise the digital economy opportunities across all sectors, including a stakeholder summit in the first quarter.
The National Broadband Plan (NBP), which is being delivered by my colleague Minister Naughten, aims to deliver high speed broadband services to every city, town, village and individual premises in Ireland. The Programme for Government commits to the delivery of the NBP as a matter of priority. This is being achieved through a combination of commercial investment by the telecommunications sector and a State intervention in those areas where commercial investment has not been fully demonstrated.
There has been significant progress in relation to broadband roll out so that today, approximately 1.4m or 61% of premises in Ireland can get high speed broadband of a minimum of 30 Megabits per second. The NBP has been a catalyst in encouraging investment by the telecoms sector, which is continuing to expand this footprint.
Minister Naughten has informed me that a formal procurement process is in train to select a company or companies who will roll-out a new high speed broadband network within the State Intervention Area. The procurement process is being intensively managed, to ensure an outcome that delivers a future-proofed network that serves homes and businesses across Ireland, for at least 25 years. The timeframe for the procurement continues to be dependent on a range of factors including the complexities that may be encountered by the procurement team and bidders, during the procurement process.
