Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 104, 105, 116 and 135 together.

The Tánaiste made a detailed statement to the House last Thursday on this issue, as did I and my colleagues, the Minister for Defence, Deputy O'Dea, and the Minister of State, Deputy Kelleher. Fuller detail on the Government's responses to the task force recommendations are in the statements, which have been circulated to Deputies, than in the summary I propose to provide today.

The task force completed an interim report which was presented to the Tánaiste by Mr. Brosnan last July. Since then the Government has responded to the recommendations under the various headings. Last September the Tánaiste sent the task force a report on responses up to that time. She has now completed a broad consultation, taking account of Departments' budgets for 2010, with other Ministers and all relevant divisions and agencies within her Department. The Tánaiste will send a further report to the task force shortly.

Throughout 2009, a multi-agency response to the Dell-related job losses has been taking place at two levels, providing information and services to individual employees facing unemployment to facilitate them to retrain, re-educate or to start a new business, and delivering specific initiatives to indigenous sub-supply companies in the mid-west to explore alternative markets, products and business opportunities. These measures will be continued and expanded up to September 2011 under a successful application which the Tánaiste made last June under the European Union's globalisation adjustment fund.

In regard to industrial employment in the mid-west, 1,100 new jobs are now coming on stream in Limerick and Clare in eight projects approved by the IDA and Shannon Development in 2008 and 2009. Five new high potential start-ups were established in the region in 2009 with Enterprise Ireland support. In addition, a €26 million Bank of Ireland seed and early stage equity fund supported by Enterprise Ireland and the University of Limerick Foundation to invest in start-up and early stage companies was recently announced. Shannon Development has begun the further development of the national technology park in Limerick into a more strategic site for the attraction of industrial investment from Irish and foreign companies. The Tánaiste has asked IDA in its new strategy, to be published later this month, to make a renewed effort in the regions, including the mid-west, and particularly the broader Limerick area, which have recently fared less well in industrial employment.

In regard to Shannon Airport, the Lynx Cargo Group and the Dublin Airport Authority are now completing an examination of the feasibility of developing a major cargo facility there. In addition to the national tourism marketing fund of €44.25 million in 2010, Tourism Ireland will engage in co-operative marketing campaigns with air carriers to promote ease of access and to stimulate demand for travel to the Shannon region from key source markets. Shannon Development will continue its annual tourism spend in the region, a support which is not available to other regions.

The response of the Minister for Transport in regard to roads in the mid-west will be included in full in the Tánaiste's next report to the task force. The region has recently seen the completion of projects such as the N18 Ennis bypass, the N85 western relief road and phase one of the N7 southern ring road. The National Roads Authority's work programme will see further extensive development to the road network in the region, including routes such as the N7, N18 and N17, the M20 to Cork, several link and bypass roads close to Limerick city, and the northern ring road. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is currently finalising arrangements to develop the governance structures in terms of the broader Limerick area.

Apart from initiatives relating specifically to the mid-west region, the Government has responded to the economic downturn generally and has taken several initiatives. Many of these respond to task force recommendations and the mid-west has already benefited from them. Cost competitiveness and wage competitiveness have been significantly improved, and the price of energy for industry significantly reduced. The enterprise stabilisation fund has helped to keep viable businesses going and to keep jobs in place. Some 148 companies were approved for funding of €59 million under the scheme by the end of 2009. The Government has supported more than 80,000 jobs under the employment subsidy scheme, at a cost of some €135 million. The referral capacity for FÁS employment supports was doubled in 2009 to 147,000 places. The recent budget also introduced a new jobs stimulus measure for this year under the employer's PRSI incentive scheme.

The recommendations of the mid-west task force have been helpful in focusing the response of the relevant Departments and agencies at both regional and national level. We are all grateful for the work undertaken to date by Mr. Brosnan and the other members of the task force. The Tánaiste will continue to keep the task force informed on the Government's work on matters covered in the interim recommendations. The task force has identified several issues for further study in its final report, which we look forward to receiving in the coming months.

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