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

My Department's regional enterprise development fund, REDF, is a competitive fund. It has been introduced to co-finance the development and implementation of collaborative and innovative enterprise projects that can make a significant impact on enterprise development in the regions to help to sustain and add to employment at county, regional and national level. The scheme is also aimed at supporting the development of initiatives that help to strengthen the capacity of regions to adjust and cope with the potential effects of external economic changes that may impact on a region's or sector's performance. The fund, administered on my Department's behalf by Enterprise Ireland, complements in particular the work underway by regional stakeholders all around the country in the implementation of my Department's regional enterprise plans, and more generally, the objectives of Future Jobs Ireland and Project Ireland 2040.

Under the REDF to date, just less than €60 million in total funding has been approved across 42 collaborative projects over two completed calls in 2017 and 2018. Projects have been supported in every region. On 24 June 2019, I announced a further call of €45 million, which is call 3 of the regional enterprise development fund. This call continues to support the development and implementation of collaborative and innovative projects. The third call closed on 25 September 2019 and I intend for the successful projects to be announced before the end of the year. As part of the competitive evaluation of projects, proposals that are ready to be implemented will be prioritised. Call 3 of the REDF has sought projects under three streams: strategic change projects capable of attracting funding of up to €5 million; smaller scale regional strengthening projects that may attract from €100,000 to €500,000; and industry-led enterprise clustering initiatives that can attract funding of €50,000 to €350,000.

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