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

The Action Plan for Jobs is the Government's key policy instrument to assist job creation. Its aim is to support enterprises to create employment throughout the whole of the country and in all regions. The creation of jobs in rural areas in particular can be supported by strong co-ordinated policies at regional level across all of the relevant State bodies, working together with local stakeholders. The Deputy will be aware that in 2013 there was employment growth in all regions. In this context, the Action Plan for Jobs contains a number of measures to be taken in 2014 to support competitive regions. These include a commitment to develop a framework for a regional enterprise strategy, which will better integrate the efforts of the enterprise development agencies and other regional stakeholders in supporting enterprises.

A core element of the Action Plan for Jobs has been the reform of the system for delivery of support to micro and small enterprises by dissolving the county and city enterprise boards and replacing them with local enterprise offices within the local authority structure under a service level agreement with Enterprise Ireland. This reform offers a one-stop shop for start-ups and small business, introduces innovations for the promotion of start-ups, including the microfinance fund and the recently announced €2 million county-based competition to find Ireland's best young entrepreneur, and enlists the considerable strength of the local authority network behind the creation of jobs. Many local authorities have been innovative in creating opportunities for enterprise development, and the reform aims to build on this. Another important development this year will be the preparation of the operational programme for the new EU rural development programme period of 2014 to 2020. The local development and Leader element of this programme will fund initiatives to support the economic development of rural Ireland and address issues such as social inclusion and poverty reduction.

The Taoiseach recently launched the report of the commission for the economic development of rural areas, CEDRA, as per a commitment under the Action Plan for Jobs. This report contains a number of recommendations to support rural job creation and will be considered shortly by the Cabinet committee on economic recovery and jobs.

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Other measures which are being taken by Government that will have a positive impact on the jobs potential of rural areas include the national broadband plan, which includes a major fibre build-out to rural areas through investment by both the private and public sector, and the focus on supporting domestically trading sectors such as construction and retail. These sectors provide employment to almost every community in the country, and the Action Plan for Jobs contains a number of measures to support them as well as other sectors which have particular potential for rural job creation, including agriculture, food, the marine and tourism.

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