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Regional Enterprise Plans

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 May 2019

Tuesday, 14 May 2019

Ceisteanna (57)

Fergus O'Dowd

Ceist:

57. Deputy Fergus O'Dowd asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation the impact of the regional enterprise plans in County Louth; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20597/19]

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Freagraí scríofa

During February and March this year, I launched nine new Regional Enterprise Plans to 2020, which build on the very strong progress made on employment creation under the Regional Action Plan for Jobs 2015-2017.

County Louth forms part of the new Regional Enterprise Plan for the North-East region, and implementation of the Plan, which also includes counties Cavan and Monaghan, has already commenced.

The principle behind the Regional Enterprise Plans is collaboration between regional stakeholders on initiatives that can help to realise the region’s enterprise development potential and add value to the core work of the enterprise agencies. These stakeholders include: Local Authorities, the LEOs, the enterprise agencies, the Regional Skills Forum, tourism boards, private sector ‘enterprise champions’, higher and further education institutions, business representative bodies, and others.

Shaped from the ‘bottom-up’ by the regional stakeholders, and overseen by my Department, the new Regional Plans complement national level policies and programmes including Ireland’s national enterprise policy, Enterprise 2025 Renewed and the Future Jobs Ireland initiative.

The Plan for the North-East is focused on achieving impact across five ‘Strategic Objectives’ including: leveraging local talent; workforce development; strengthening SME resilience; fostering clustering; and improving the tourist offering in the region. Each of the five Objectives involves a focus on Co. Louth as part of the North-East region.

Employment performance has been strong in Co. Louth with EI and IDA supported employment growing by 8 percent since the start of the Regional Action Plan for Jobs initiative in 2015. Last year, the LEOs supported an additional 98 new jobs in micro firms and start-ups in Co. Louth.

The CSO Labour Force Survey reports employment data for Co. Louth as part of the Mid-East region along with Meath, Kildare and Wicklow. It is very encouraging to see that there are 42,400 more people in employment in this region from Q1 2015 to Q4 2018 and unemployment has reduced from 9.6 percent to 4.9 percent over the same period.

The focus for Co. Louth and the North-East over the period to 2020 under the new Regional Enterprise Plan will be to maintain an emphasis on employment growth, and to ensure that sustainable, quality jobs are created and maintained the region.

Finally, it is important to note that the Government has put several funding streams in place to support regional development, and the North-East has seen many successes through these ongoing initiatives. They include my Department’s Regional Enterprise Development Fund; and the Rural and Urban Regeneration and Development Funds under Project Ireland 2040.

Under the €60 million competitive Regional Enterprise Development Fund (REDF), the North-East region has secured total funding of over €5.4 million under the two completed Calls so far.

Guided by this new Regional Enterprise Plan, Co. Louth is well positioned to build on this success and to continue to see the benefits and results of collaborative and innovative initiatives that can make a significant impact on enterprise development in the region.

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