Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We see the regional enterprise strategy, like the Action Plan for Jobs, as being an annual event. The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Alex White, is working on the issue of broadband provision and a tender will be drawn up later in the year, but there is a lot that can be done with our existing resources. We are very much about looking to see what we can do today that will enhance the performance of a region in the next 12 months.

A year from now, we can consider what can be done afresh. We should not stop what we are doing just because the Leader programme might be postponed. At the end of March we will be calling on local enterprise offices and community enterprise centres to commence the process of encouraging people to consider how they might enhance the assets they already possess.

When we declared our ambition of creating 100,000 new jobs, people said we were overestimating what was possible. All the critics stated that if various Departments' statistics were taken into account, it was obvious that what we were seeking to do could not happen. However, it has happened. I am of the view that there is an opportunity to push on in this regard. IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland companies are performing strongly and the construction industry, although coming off a very low base, is moving again. Parts of the retail sector will struggle as a result of the switch to trading online, but other areas of it are showing a strong recovery. If we can put in place some of the things to which I refer, encourage entrepreneurship and make it easier to start up businesses, then we will deliver on those targets. I would not be disappointed if, ultimately, we were to hit 95% and fall slightly short. We have been in the businesses of setting stretched targets all through this process and we can stand over what we are delivering in this regard.