Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 May 2019
60. Deputy Fiona O'Loughlin asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation the steps she is taking to promote job creation in the mid-east region, including County Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20583/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn April 2018, I asked all the Regional Action Plan for Jobs Implementation Committees to start a process to refresh and refocus all Regional Plans to ensure their relevance and impact out to 2020, so that they continue to deliver jobs across the country, in every region, and can be robust to address the challenges we face, including Brexit.
The outcome of this refresh process is 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.
Shaped from the ‘bottom-up’ by regional stakeholders, and overseen by my Department, the new Regional Enterprise Plans to 2020 align and underpin national policies and programmes including Ireland’s national enterprise policy, Enterprise 2025 Renewed and the Future Jobs Ireland 2019.
The Regional Enterprise Plans are two-year focused Plans, which are also ‘live’ documents, so new initiatives can be adopted during their operation by the regional stakeholders working together.
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. These stakeholders include: the Local Authorities, the LEOs, the enterprise agencies, the Regional Skills Forum, tourism bodies, private sector ‘enterprise champions’ and others.
I launched the new Regional Enterprise Plan for the Mid-East region, which covers Kildare, Meath and Wicklow, on the 7th February in Naas. It is focused on four Strategic Objectives, specifically developing the Screen Content Creation Sector, developing innovative co-working spaces, supporting the agri-food sector and ensuring the availability of skills and talent.
Each of the four Strategic Objectives includes actions in Co. Kildare as part of the Mid-East region, and the Local Authority in Co. Kildare will lead on Strategic Objective 2, that is the development of a network of innovative co-working spaces in the Mid-East Region .
The Strategic Objectives and actions in the Mid-East Plan are set out alongside the Enterprise Agencies’ (Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland) and the LEOs’ core activities in Co. Kildare and the wider region. In this way the new Plans add value and support the work of the Agencies on the ground in the Mid-East, through a collaborative approach.
The unemployment rate in the Mid-East region, which includes Co. Kildare along with Meath and Wicklow has reduced from 9.6 percent in Q1 2015 to 4.9 percent in Q4 2018, the second-lowest unemployment rate in the country.
The focus for Co. Kildare and the Mid-East over the period to 2020 under the Plan will be to maintain an emphasis on employment growth, aiming to out-perform the rate of growth achieved since 2015 to date and to ensure that sustainable, quality jobs are created and maintained the region. The collaborative strategic objectives and actions in this Plan, along with the core activities of the various Agencies and Bodies involved in supporting enterprise development over the coming two-year period will support this.
Finally, it is important to note that my Department, together with other Government Departments, has put several funding streams in place to support regional development, and I am pleased that the Mid-East has been successful in a number of these funding initiatives. These include my Department’s Regional Enterprise Development Fund; the Rural and Urban Regeneration and Development Funds under Project Ireland 2040; and the Town and Village Renewal Scheme.
Under my Department's €60 million competitive Regional Enterprise Development Fund (REDF), the Mid-East region has secured total funding of over €3.4 million to date under the two completed Calls. One of these projects, the development of the Mid East Regional Innovation Think Space (MERITS) enterprise centre in Naas, involves an investment of just over €1.9 million from the REDF.
Guided by this new Regional Enterprise Plan, Co. Kildare and the wider Mid-East region and 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.
