Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Timmins for his question. Our Rural Future is the whole-of-government policy for sustainable rural development in Ireland. More than 170 measures are outlined to support sustainable economic and social development and environmental and cultural well-being across all our rural areas. The delivery of these measures is clearly based on a cross-governmental approach, with a range of Departments contributing to their own areas of responsibility.

Supporting employment and careers in rural areas by creating an environment that supports entrepreneurship and enterprise growth in rural areas is a key objective of that policy. In the main, enterprise policy and related commitments contained in Our Rural Future are the responsibility of my colleague, the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Deputy Burke, working together with the relevant agencies under his remit. Significant progress continues to be made in this regard. For example, 64% of the new jobs created by Enterprise Ireland client companies last year were located outside the Dublin region, while 59% of Industrial Development Authority , IDA, investment was in the regional locations.

The role of the regional enterprise plans and local enterprise offices, LEOs, are crucial here also. In 2024, more than 7,000 new jobs were created by LEO supported companies, with 81% of these new jobs in businesses based outside of Dublin. Such interventions at local level, along with those at Údarás na Gaeltachta for muintir na Gaeltachta, are key to ensuring continued economic growth. I look forward to the development of the new round of regional enterprise plans next year.

Within my Department, the LEADER programme also focuses on supporting local economic development, helping to diversify the rural economy and create employment opportunities. Similarly, the delivery of the network of more than 380 connected hubs, supporting remote jobs in rural areas, and significant enhancements to our digital infrastructure, as the Deputy mentioned in his opening remarks, are helping to support rural enterprises and employment.

The programme for Government includes a commitment to publish and implement a new Our Rural Future policy, which will take effect from 2026. Public and stakeholder consultations are already well under way in respect of the new policy. They will continue throughout the summer. I hope to bring a final draft to the committee before the end of this calendar year.

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