Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Good morning, members. I am grateful for the opportunity to brief the committee today. I look forward to updating members on the work of my Department in the first quarter of this year.

At the outset, it is worth noting that more people are employed in Ireland today than ever before. Central Statistics Office, CSO, data published last week show the unemployment rate for April 2023 was down to 3.9%. Clients of the enterprise agencies of my Department now employ over 550,000 people, which is over 21% of the total workforce. As a country, we are close to full employment.

The economy is well diversified, with hundreds of thousands of people employed in pharmaceuticals, agrifood, medtech, retail, construction, ICT and financial services.

Despite the impact of the war in Ukraine, inflationary pressures and disruptions to the global supply chain have not impacted on our export performance and it continues to be strong. Informed by our new trade and investment strategy we are working to enhance our excellent reputation as a world-class supplier of goods and services, while also successfully securing new business in markets around the world. Trends in the first quarter of this year are positive, with 11 new IDA Ireland jobs announcements, generating 600 new jobs. A significant number of more jobs on top of that were announced last week. Given where we were a couple of years ago, with the pandemic and Brexit, and the current challenges we are facing, our performance is a testament to the hard work and remarkable resilience of Irish enterprise. It is also a result of our enterprise policies and implementation of those by my Department as well as Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and the local enterprise offices, LEOs. There is, however, no room for complacency. The White Paper on enterprise published in December provides a fresh impetus for progress. It sets a vision for enterprise to succeed through competitive advantage founded on sustainability, innovation and productivity as well as delivering rewarding jobs and livelihoods. This approach will ensure we build on our economic strengths as an open economy with strong trade and foreign direct investment, as a vibrant innovation hub and a country with a resilient enterprise base and labour market.

Notwithstanding our strong employment and trade performance, the global economic outlook remains uncertain. In 2023, my Department continues to be at the forefront of the Government’s response to the challenges brought about by the war in Ukraine, which include disrupted supply chains, inflation and high energy costs. We have launched a suite of new initiatives and made improvements to others. In January, the Ukraine credit guarantee scheme, valued at €1.2 billion, got under way. This scheme provides certainty to businesses that their liquidity funding needs can be met through low-cost loans supported by the Government. This is complemented by the extension and expansion of the €200 million Ukraine enterprise crisis scheme to assist viable but vulnerable firms in the manufacturing and internationally traded services sectors. I am acutely aware of the significant impact that energy costs are having on businesses and we have extended and enhanced the temporary business energy support scheme, TBESS, to increase the levels of relief available to companies.

The White Paper on enterprise recognises the opportunities that arise as we transition to a climate-neutral, sustainable and digitally connected Ireland. Our aim is to be at the forefront of what is a global transition, maximising the potential in emerging technologies and markets and ensuring a strong reputation as a leading green economy. In March, we established new working groups to ensure we meet our ambitious climate action plan targets to decarbonise industrial heat and the commercial built environment. We have also committed to developing a national industrial strategy for offshore wind, which I am happy to talk to the committee about. The Government approved it yesterday. Harnessing this vast resource can help Ireland tackle the climate crisis by reducing emissions and position Ireland as an attractive place for global business in the future. We are continuing our important stakeholder engagement with regular meetings of groups such as the enterprise forum and the retail forum. Stakeholder engagement greatly assists us in developing strategies, policies and programmes. To date, we have held two of nine Building Better Business events. These events are being rolled out across the country to help enterprises navigate the green transition and to boost performance through digital transformation. In January, we launched a pilot framework to extend the mandate of the local enterprise offices. This will allow for the provision of direct grant aid to companies with more than ten employees in the manufacturing and internationally traded services sectors that have export ambitions. In February, we hosted a construction industry outreach event, Collaborate to Innovate, to examine how best to promote innovation in the sector and accelerate the adoption of modern methods of construction in the delivery of housing. We have expanded our supports for targeted, business-focused research, development and innovation. In March, a sixth call of the disruptive technologies innovation fund was launched. This call had a focus on projects that complement our policy objectives on digital transformation, integrating decarbonisation and meeting our net zero commitments.

We continue to advance our legislative priorities. This year we will progress Bills on the control of exports, digital services, the screening of third country transactions and representative actions. The Ministers of State, Deputies Calleary and Richmond, are advancing important legislation to enhance the protection of employees in collective redundancies following insolvency. To ensure that work pays more, on 1 January the national minimum wage increased by 80 cent to €11.30 per hour. This increase can be considered the first year of the proposed four-year path towards reaching the living wage of 60% of the median wage. To ensure our strong performance continues, I am finalising a new departmental statement of strategy, which will run to 2025. Guided by the objectives of the White Paper on enterprise, it will give us a strategic framework not only to protect the progress made, but to build a greener, more sustainable and more prosperous country. My Department has set out an ambitious programme of work for the year ahead. I can assure the committee that I will continue to work hard to make the right policy calls for employment creation, enterprise development, trading relationships, safeguarding workers, consumer protection and ensuring fair competition in the marketplace. I look forward to members' questions.

I will mention a concern I suspect the committee has which would be consistent with the Government's concern about price inflation in food prices in the grocery sector which is running at approximately double general inflation. The Government is not happy about that. We expect to see reductions in prices in the food retail sector in line with reductions in inflation, as it develops this year. The cost of energy and supply chains have reduced and we expect the prices in food retail to reduce accordingly. That is why the Government has asked that the retail forum be convened today - it was brought forward a number of weeks - and it will meet again in six weeks' time. We expect to see progress in the interim period. I am happy to talk to members about that. We have also looked for and received preliminary advice from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC. I am happy to talk through it with members if they would like to do so. This is an area the Government will watch closely. We expect to see competition in the market function as it should to ensure consumer interests are protected with respect to reducing prices and inflation in this sector. I am happy to take any comments and questions members may have.