Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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34. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the type of projects eligible for support under the regional enterprise development fund; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5764/18]

Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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I have submitted this question to seek more information about the operation of the regional enterprise development fund, principally to establish how it is operating and, in particular, what types of projects are eligible under the fund.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The Enterprise Ireland regional enterprise development fund, REDF, launched in May 2017, is a €60 million competitive fund aimed at supporting significant regional initiatives that will build on sectoral strengths and improve enterprise capability across the regions. The REDF is intended to support the ambition, goals and implementation of the regional action plans for jobs.

REDF funding is being made available over the period 2017 to 2020 under two competitive calls. The first call under the REDF concluded in August last year and in December I announced an allocation of €30.5 million in funding across 21 successful projects from all over the country. Four are in the northern and western region, 11 are in the southern region and six are in the eastern and midlands region. I intend to launch a second competitive call under the fund in March of this year for the remainder of the €60 million. With regard to the type of projects that may be eligible for support, there are four streams under the fund reflecting variations in scale and focus for project applications, as follows. Stream one is to support major regional, multi-regional or national sectoral initiatives with grants of €2 million up to €5 million per project in funding towards capital and current costs. Stream two is to support significant county, regional or multi-regional sectoral and-or enterprise initiatives with grants of €250,000 up to €2 million per project in funding towards capital and current costs. Stream three is for local and community enterprise projects, with grants of €50,000 up to €250,000 per project in funding towards capital and current costs. Stream four is to support significant industry clustering initiatives with grants of €50,000 up to €250,000 per project in funding towards current costs.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

All projects will have to demonstrate and will be evaluated against the following criteria: impacts and value for money, collaboration and participation, viability and sustainability, building regional strengths and significance for innovation and capability building.

In order to ensure a balanced regional spread, Enterprise Ireland has targeted €2 million to be allocated for the best ranked projects across the eight nomenclature of territorial units for statistics, NUTS III, regions which have attained a minimum score of 60% or higher in the evaluation process, over the two calls.

Full details are currently available in the Scheme Document on the Enterprise Ireland website at www.enterprise-ireland.com.

Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for her reply. It is interesting that there were 11 successful applicants in the southern region. There were four in the north west and six in the eastern region.

Has the Minister thought about bringing in changes to make the scheme more accessible to applicants? The aviation and aerospace industry is of huge importance to the mid-west region, including where I come from in County Clare, Shannon, Limerick and north Tipperary. In Shannon alone, there are 40 different companies engaged in many different areas of aviation, including leasing, maintenance and aircraft recycling, etc. They employ 1,600 people. Have companies in the Shannon area drawn down this fund?

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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There were two successful applications in the mid-west region. Emerald Aero Cluster Group was the successful applicant under call one of stream four. Stream four is to support significant industry clustering initiatives with grants of €50,000 to €250,000 per project. Emerald Aero Cluster Group is a cluster of 14 indigenous manufacturing companies brought together with the specific purpose of increasing aerospace manufacturing export revenues for members and aerospace business for the Republic of Ireland. That is hugely important for that industry. The Irish Bioeconomy Foundation was approved for funding under the REDF within stream one. Stream one is to support major regional, multi-regional or national sectoral initiatives and grants of €2 million to €5 million per project in funding towards capital and current costs. The project is located on the former Lisheen mine site which went into a planned close phase in late-2015 with the loss of 200 jobs. They are two very worthwhile projects that have been supported in the area.

Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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Does Deputy Carey wish to make a final comment?

Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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No.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Some applications were not successful. It is a competitive process but there are some who did not receive funding. There are other initiatives and ideas that have yet to come forward for the second tranche of the funding. I encourage applicants to consider coming forward under the second call which I will launch in the springtime. All successful applicants under the first call can receive specific feedback on their submissions from Enterprise Ireland and can identify with Enterprise Ireland where they could alter or improve in order to resubmit for the next call as appropriate. Unsuccessful projects that alter and improve their applications following consultation with Enterprise Ireland's regional team and others may submit a new application. The second call will fund projects from the remaining balance of the €60 million of the budget that is available. Call two is a competitive process and not all applications can be successful. They need to engage with Enterprise Ireland because this is a really good fund that helps bring companies, local authorities and State agencies together. If they work in a collaborative way, it certainly improves their chances of getting funding.