Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 4 December 2018
285. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation the number of job-creating enterprises supported by her Department in the past 12 months; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50846/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department has a comprehensive and wide-ranging approach to fostering and supporting job creating enterprises that encompasses both strategic and enterprise agency led input.
The Regional Action Plan for Jobs (RAPJ) initiative is a central pillar of the Government’s ambition to create 200,000 new jobs by 2020, 135,000 of which are outside of Dublin. A key objective of the initiative is to have a further 10 to 15 per cent at work in each region by 2020, with the aim of having the unemployment rate of each region within one per cent of the national average.
Since the launch of the Regional Action Plan for Jobs (RAPJ) there has been an increase of 258,800 people in employment across the State since Q1 2015 to Q3 2018, with 163,500 people in the regions outside of Co. Dublin entering employment in that period. That is over 63% - or 3 out of every 5 jobs created - were for regions outside of Co. Dublin (Q1 2015 - Q3 2018). In the year from Q3 2017 - Q3 2018, just over half (51%) of the jobs created were outside of Co. Dublin.
In April of this year, I asked all the RAPJ committees and other regional stakeholders to start a process to Refresh and Refocus all Regional Plans to ensure their relevance and impact out to 2020. The Refresh and Refocus will ensure that the Plans remain effective and that they continue to deliver jobs across the country and can be robust to address the challenges we face, including Brexit.
All Regions have established a Project Delivery Team, which has met to examine initial proposals for each Region's Strategic Objectives and all Regions now have a working draft of their refreshed Plans. The refreshed Regional Plans aim to be completed by the end of the year.
The IDA has performed very strongly over the last 12 months and it is a huge achievement that there are now over 210,000 people employed in IDA Ireland client companies.
The fact that it has surpassed its overall five-year target of 209,000 within three years is further evidence of the Agency's success in growing the level of employment by multinationals here. I am especially pleased to see that of the 237 overseas investments made in 2017, a record number of 111 were from new companies investing in Ireland for the first time. This reflects the health of the pipeline of foreign direct investment (FDI) here.
The Agency has maintained - if not bettered - its strong performance from 2017 into 2018. Regions outside of Dublin have had some high-profile job announcements including 600 jobs in the Mid-West at Edwards Life Sciences and 400 new jobs promised for Dundalk by Chinese life sciences company Wuxi Biologics. There were also two significant announcements in Longford in Avery Dennison and Red Seal Sups, bringing 300 jobs to the Midlands region.
The global investment climate, we should remember, is becoming ever more competitive. Our collective ability to continue winning new overseas investment for Ireland is therefore a testament to both the work of the IDA and the strength of our offering to multinational companies.
Enterprise Ireland supports approximately 5,000 companies and a total of 209,338 people are now employed in those companies. Despite the challenges and uncertainty created by Brexit, there are also many opportunities and Irish companies have continued to win sales around the world that have supported strong job creation across all regions of Ireland.
19,332 new jobs were created by Enterprise Ireland backed companies in 2017, with 64% of these jobs created in regions outside of Dublin. There was employment growth in every sector and every county.
The Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) are the ‘first-stop-shop’ for advice, guidance, financial assistance and soft supports such as training and mentoring to those wishing to start or grow their own business.
In 2017, the LEOs supported 7,182 client companies employing 37,485 people. They created 7,135 new jobs with a net increase of 3,760 jobs. The LEOs provided mentoring to 8,393 clients in 2017 and 30,373 people took part in training provided by the LEOs.
My Department also supports InterTrade Ireland (ITI), the cross-border trade and business development body. Funding for ITI is jointly provided by my Department and our Northern Ireland counterpart, the Department for the Economy. Through its innovation and trade initiatives, ITI helps small businesses in Ireland and Northern Ireland to explore new cross-border markets and develop new products, processes and services which help improve capability as well as driving competitiveness, growth and jobs. With the launch of the Brexit Advisory Service in May 2017, InterTrade Ireland is also helping companies to prepare for the UK’s exit from the EU through a range of supports and services. ITI is a small organisation but with a big outreach; to date, the body has assisted over 39,000 companies, created or protected over 14,000 jobs and supported over €1.2bn in additional business development value for small businesses across the island.
