Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I thank the Deputy for his question. Balanced regional development remains a key Government priority. One central aim of the White Paper on Enterprise 2022-2030 is to support balanced regional economic development. My Department and its agencies contribute to this agenda in several ways, including through the nine regional enterprise plans or REPs. These are bottom-up plans developed and led by regional stakeholders, which focus on collaborative initiatives to strengthen the enterprise ecosystem in each region.

As mentioned in response to a parliamentary question during Question Time on the 20 February 2025, with agreement from the regional enterprise plans national oversight group at its meeting of 25 April 2024, the current REPs have been extended for one year to the end of 2025. This extension provides an additional year for the continued implementation of the current plans and time to consider the best approach to the development of successor plans throughout 2025.

There is a clear commitment in the new programme for Government to publish and resource new regional enterprise plans. Before we develop these new plans, I am assessing our approach to date so I can set a clear framework for the future and engage all of the relevant stakeholders in each region.

An independent review of the regional enterprise plan initiative is currently under way. The review began in January 2025 and the final report is due to be delivered by the end of this month. A steering group was established to oversee the review.

The REP national oversight group, or NOG, met last week, with the Minister, Deputy Burke, the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, and me co-chairing the meeting. The NOG brought together the chairs from the regional committees and other key stakeholders to discuss implementation of the REPs and related policies. We will ensure that we also develop a new policy statement in the second half of this year. In turn, that will lead to the development of the next set of regional enterprise plans.

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