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Job Initiatives

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 May 2019

Tuesday, 14 May 2019

Ceisteanna (58)

James Browne

Ceist:

58. Deputy James Browne asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation her plans to address the issue of unemployment and the need for further investment in the south east; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20361/19]

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Freagraí scríofa

A total of 18,500 more people are in employment in the South-East at the end of 2018 than in 2015 when the Regional Action Plan for Jobs initiative was launched. Unemployment in the region has reduced from 11.7 percent to 7.7 percent in the same period. While we have had great success through the Action Plan for Jobs in reducing unemployment, in the context of Brexit and other global challenges it is important that we move our focus beyond numbers of jobs created to quality and sustainable jobs. Future Jobs Ireland is our plan to meet these challenges. Launched on 10 March 2019, it includes ambitious targets and actions to drive this transformation of our economy. Government remains committed to achieving an overall jobs uplift of between 10 and 15 per cent in each region by 2020 and to bring and/or maintain unemployment levels in each region to within at least one percentage point of the State average. Unemployment in the South East is currently outside that 2020 target.

To that end, 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. I am pleased to say that implementation has commenced in all regions.

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

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. The 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.

I launched the new Regional Enterprise Plan for the South-East region, which covers Carlow, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford on 22 March 2019 in Waterford. The Steering Committee for the Plan, chaired by Frank O'Regan (formerly of Bausch and Lomb, Waterford) has already met to commence its implementation.

There are five ‘Strategic Objectives’ in the South East Plan. These include: building enterprise resilience; marketing the region; a regional engagement strategy on key infrastructure priorities; ensuring the South East is a learning region; and tourism growth.

The Strategic Objectives and actions in the South-East Plan are set out alongside the Enterprise Agencies’ (Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland) and the LEOs’ core activities in the region.

The focus for the South-East over the period to 2020 under the new Plan will be to maintain an emphasis on employment growth, aiming to out-perform the rate of growth achieved since 2015 to date, reduce unemployment to within one percentage point of the national average, and ensure that sustainable, quality jobs are created and maintained the region. The collaborative strategic objectives and actions in this Plan will support this.

The Government has put several funding streams in place to support regional development, and the South-East has seen a number of successes through these. 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 South-East region has secured total funding of over €10 million to date under the two completed Calls.

Guided by this new Regional Enterprise Plan, the South-East region is well positioned to realise its enterprise potential.

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