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Job Initiatives

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 18 April 2018

Wednesday, 18 April 2018

Ceisteanna (54)

James Browne

Ceist:

54. Deputy James Browne asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation her plans to support quality job creation in County Wexford; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16171/18]

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Freagraí scríofa

My Department, through its enterprise agencies, is committed to supporting businesses to grow, innovate and perform strongly in global markets.

 I am delighted to say that 2017 was a particularly good year for job numbers and job creation in agency supported companies. In Co. Wexford, 4,670 people were employed in the 122 Enterprise Ireland supported companies, 2,948 people were employed in the 18 IDA Ireland clients and the Local Enterprise Office supported 213 clients with 1,348 total jobs, a gross increase of 238 jobs on 2016.   

The South East Action Plan for Jobs which launched in September 2015, aims to increase employment in the region by 10-15% over the period to 2020, resulting in the delivery of 25,000 jobs. The most recent comparable data shows that there are now over 16,000 more people in employment in the region from Q1 2015 to Q2 2017.

On Monday, I launched the second call of the Regional Enterprise Development Fund. The first call under the Fund was announced in May 2017, with the results released in December. Twenty-one applicants representing all regions of the country secured a total of up to €30.5m in financial support for a range of enterprise and capability development projects. The second call will fund projects with the balance of the €60m remaining under the fund.

Enterprise Ireland is committed to developing regional employment growth – a fact reflected in the fact that 64% of jobs created by the agency in 2017 were outside Dublin. Enterprise Ireland’s focus for 2018 is to help clients, including those located in Wexford, to build on the strength of their 2017 performance by supporting them to innovate, be competitive and to diversify their global footprint -  key attributes required to be resilient to economic shocks, such as those emerging from any kind of Brexit.

In the period 2015 - 2017 Enterprise Ireland paid €5.3 million to client companies in Wexford to support companies to be innovative, improve competitiveness and to diversify their global footprint. 

The Local Enterprise Office (LEO) located in Wexford town is the ‘first-stop-shop’ for providing advice and guidance, financial assistance and other supports for anyone that intends to start or grow a business in the county. LEO Wexford provides a ‘signposting’ service in relation to all relevant state supports available through agencies such as Revenue, the Department of Social Protection, Education and Training Boards, Credit Review Office and Microfinance Ireland.

IDA Ireland’s strategy, Winning Foreign Direct Investment 2015-2019, sets out challenging targets in respect of the FDI sector for the period. Under the programme, IDA is targeting a minimum increase in investment of 30% to 40% in each region outside Dublin.

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