Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Harkin for her question and I assure her we are focused on balanced regional development and protecting the viability of businesses and SMEs throughout the country. This was the case generally even before Covid but it is certainly the case in relation to Covid and Brexit, which is coming down the tracks. We have taken a strong regional approach over the past seven or eight years as Fine Gael has been involved in various Governments. The statistics show the majority of jobs, more than 65%, are created outside of Dublin and in the regions. That is a constant aim and something we can never take for granted so we are constantly focused on pushing jobs out to the regions. Project 2040 and the long-term plans therein are about regional balance and investment for jobs in all sectors and services.

My Department and its agencies assist enterprises of all types and sizes in Ireland, and of all ages, to return to Deputy Mattie McGrath's point. This includes access to finance, management development, mentoring, business development programmes, market supports and trade promotion. In addition to the regional focus of the enterprise agencies and the network of local enterprise offices, LEOs, nine regional enterprise plans for the period to 2020 were launched in early 2019, building on the previous regional plans we had, and they are currently being implemented. These plans were developed by regional stakeholders and overseen by my Department. It is a bottom-up approach involving local players in collaboration to bring forward the best ideas and projects we can fund at a national level.

In preparing for Brexit, the Government has introduced a range of measures to assist businesses and SMEs, including Brexit checklists and advisory tools, direct grants and loans. For example, Enterprise Ireland are running an online customs insights course and will launch a new Brexit readiness checker, while the new €2 billion credit guarantee scheme is the largest guarantee scheme ever provided for Irish businesses. These measures ensure there is financial assistance and advice available for Irish businesses as they resume trading and rebuild through Covid and Brexit. The supports are available through our LEOs, Enterprise Ireland and the other agencies in our Department.

The regional enterprise development fund is currently funding 68 projects across all regions to a value of €100 million and the Border enterprise development fund is funding 11 projects in the Border region to a value €17 million, trying to target the resources where, as the Deputy rightly says, they are needed. In addition, 12 projects to the value of €4.6 million have been approved under the regional technology clustering fund. These projects will enable regions throughout Ireland to build enterprise capability and capacity in a post-Brexit environment.

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