Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I very much welcome the opportunity to discuss the details of my Department's Estimate for 2019 with members of the select committee. My colleague, the Minister of State with responsibility for trade, employment, business, the EU digital Single Market and data protection, Deputy Breen, will be with us shortly. My other departmental colleague, the Minister of State with responsibility for training, skills, innovation, research and development, Deputy Halligan, has asked me to offer his apologies as he is unable to be here owing to another commitment.

With the committee's indulgence, I propose to make some overall introductory remarks about the capital and current moneys being provided by my Department in 2019. The Minister of State, Deputy Breen, hopes to make some brief remarks about the Department's regulation programme and his specific areas of responsibility. I understand my officials have provided a briefing for members of the committee on the details of the Department's 2019 Estimate which I hope has been of assistance.

As regards the financials, the 2019 Revised Estimates published by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform provided my Department with a gross allocation of €950.2 million for use in 2019. This represents an increase of more than €79.2 million or 9.1% on the 2018 Estimate of €870.96 million. In addition, approval was secured to carry over €27.6 million in unspent capital moneys from 2018 to 2019. In essence, the total gross funding available for use by my Department and its statutory agencies and offices in 2019 is €977.8 million.

As regards capital funding, the 2019 allocation of €620 million is the highest capital allocation ever received by my Department and represents an increase of €65 million, or almost 12%, on the 2018 capital allocation which was also a record allocation. On current funding, the €330.2 million being provided by my Department in 2019 represents an increase of more than €14.27 million on last year's allocation.

Before dealing with the specifics of some of the 2019 allocations, I will say a word about what my Department achieved with the moneys it received in 2018. Last year was another very successful year in job creation by the clients of the Department's enterprise agencies. In 2018 these clients delivered 26,815 net new jobs. Of this total, 9,119 net new jobs were created by clients of Enterprise Ireland, 14,040 by clients of IDA Ireland and 3,656 by clients of the local enterprise offices. Our agencies now directly support more than 480,000 jobs, which represents more than 21% of all jobs in the economy. These jobs are in all sectors of the economy and all regions of the country. Regional development continued to be a particular focus of our enterprise agencies in 2018, with the result that over 58% of jobs supported by IDA Ireland and 64% of Enterprise Ireland-supported jobs are located outside Dublin.

A very significant amount of resources and effort was devoted by my Department and its agencies and offices in 2018 to the challenge of Brexit and preparing businesses for that challenge. Some of the specific initiative supports my Department and its enterprise agencies have undertaken to help businesses to compete include the Brexit loan scheme, the Enterprise Ireland Brexit SME scorecard, Enterprise Ireland's "Be Prepared" grant, the Enterprise Ireland Act On programme and the roll-out of the regional enterprise development fund. Enterprise Ireland's Brexit advisory clinics have provided assistance and advice on matters such as financial and currency management. The local enterprise offices technical assistance for microenterprises grant has been designed to support qualifying businesses to diversify into new markets. The local enterprise offices' "Lean for Micro" programme is available nationwide to help small businesses to become more efficient and competitive.

Turning to 2019, Brexit will undoubtedly continue to be the primary focus of my Department and its agencies and offices. The additional funding being provided for the Department's Vote in the 2019 Revised Estimates will enable us to step up our response to Brexit and introduce a further suite of measures to enable businesses to prepare for the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union. The measures build on the specific initiatives undertaken in budget 2017 and budget 2018 and have been designed to support the pillars of my Department's strategic response to Brexit.

In terms of specifics, 2019 will see the roll-out of the initial phase of the new future growth loan scheme. The scheme which I had the pleasure of launching this morning will provide up to €300 million to support eligible businesses to invest strategically in a post-Brexit environment. It will bring much needed long-term lending to the marketplace by offering loan terms of eight to ten years. It will be competitively priced with better terms and conditions than those available in the marketplace. The scheme will be delivered by the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland through participating finance providers.

The year 2019 will also see the roll-out of Enterprise Ireland's revised seed and venture scheme. The revised scheme with funding of €175 million is being oriented towards seed and early stage investments where an evaluation has shown that there is a clear market failure. It will actively direct investment to key sectors that have been identified for development as part of overall enterprise strategy and will be closely aligned with other key enterprise support programmes.

The 2019 Revised Estimates also provide an additional €8 million in funding to enable the Department, its regulatory bodies and enterprise agencies to increase their staffing resources and fund additional promotional and regulatory activities to assist in the response to Brexit and in preparing business for this challenge. Of the additional funding, €3 million is being provided for Enterprise Ireland and €2 million for IDA Ireland. This builds on the increased Brexit-related resources given to the Department's enterprise agencies in 2017 and 2018. An additional €1 million in funding is being provided for InterTradeIreland this year in recognition of the unique role it plays in promoting cross-Border trade and the significantly increased demand for its services arising from Brexit.

The importance of attracting greater foreign direct investment into regional locations has also been given greater impetus by Brexit. To this end, an extra €10 million in capital moneys has been provided for IDA Ireland in 2019 to enable it to augment its regional property programme by providing additional property solutions in a further number of regional locations, including Sligo, Dundalk, Athlone, Waterford, Monaghan, Longford, Galway, Limerick and Maynooth, thereby enhancing the offering of these regions to companies interested in foreign direct investment. It is important to point out that all properties completed under the regional property programme to date are now occupied and creating jobs in regional locations.

Another major regional funding initiative in 2019 is the additional €5 million in capital funding being provided for local enterprise offices. The increase of more than 22% in funding will allow the local enterprise offices to build on their specific strengths in furthering enterprise development and job creating in their local areas. The Minister of State, Deputy Breen, will provide further details of the LEOs' plans for 2019 in his presentation.

With regard to helping enterprises to innovate in the face of the challenge of Brexit, the 2019 Estimates increased the funding for my Department's innovation programme by more than €42 million, an increase of almost 12% on the 2018 allocation. The additional funding will allow us to roll out the first phase of the disruptive technologies innovation fund, DTIF. The fund is one of four headline funds announced in Project 2040. The €500 million DTIF is a challenge-based fund and represents a significant investment in developing Ireland's innovation ecosystem and responsiveness. It will be implemented through the Department and its agencies, working with other research funding bodies. In December I was delighted to announce that 27 projects had been approved in principle for funding in the first call of the DTIF. The projects will receive more than €70 million in Government funding between now and 2021. The additional funding being provided for the innovation programme in 2019 will also ensure Science Foundation Ireland can continue to invest in research centres and other established programmes.

As the committee will appreciate, Brexit is an unprecedented challenge which involves all Departments and many of the agencies.

The Government published its contingency action plan in December 2018, setting out the comprehensive cross-Government preparations that have been in place since even before the Brexit vote. The Government has already taken actions to get Ireland Brexit ready, with dedicated measures announced in budgets 2017, 2018 and 2019. Budget 2019 included an allocation of more than €110 million for Brexit measures across a number of Departments. Nevertheless, the uncertainty and difficulties with negotiations on the UK's departure from the European Union have required that preparations be made for all eventualities. Contingency planning has moved to taking actions to mitigate the risks of a no-deal Brexit. The Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Act 2019, which has passed through the Houses, is designed to protect our citizens and support the economy and jobs, particularly in key economic sectors that are most exposed, to mitigate the worst effects of a no-deal Brexit.

Aside from Brexit, there are a number of other challenges facing us which I would like to mention briefly. A particular challenge is to prepare our citizens and enterprises for the economy of tomorrow. To that end, I recently launched Future Jobs Ireland 2019, a new whole-of-Government initiative organised around five pillars. These are innovation and technological change; improving productivity, particularly in Irish small and medium sized enterprises; enhancing skills and developing and attracting talent; increasing participation in the labour force; and transitioning to a low carbon economy. Future Jobs Ireland 2019 has set targets for each pillar and measurable performance indicators. Through the Department of the Taoiseach and my Department, we will ensure every Government Department and agency steps up to the plate in delivering this ambitious new plan for our country.

The additional capital provision being provided to my Department in 2019 will enable us to progress further some of my Department's priority investment projects identified in Project Ireland 2040. Among the specific projects that we will progress further in 2019 are the disruptive technologies fund, IDA Ireland's regional property fund, the future growth loan scheme, the new seed and venture programme, further supports to local enterprise offices and a refresh of Science Foundation Ireland, SFI, research centres. I will be happy to take any questions members might have.