Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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27. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the way in which the regional enterprise development fund can help drive job creation in midlands; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16179/18]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I want to ask the Minister about the regional enterprise development fund to help drive job creation. Phase one of the fund was the Minister's first official engagement in her current role. She came to the Irish Manufacturing Research, IMR, facility in Mullingar to launch the first phase at the National Science Park. We were delighted to receive an allocation of €2.1 million for all the work going on in the facility.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The regional enterprise development fund, REDF, supported by my Department through Enterprise Ireland, was launched in May 2017. It 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.

The REDF is aimed at accelerating economic recovery in all regions of the country by delivering on the potential of local and regional enterprise strengths. The fund will support significant collaborative and innovative regional initiatives to build on specific industry sectoral strengths and improve enterprise capability, thereby driving job creation. This will be achieved by co-financing the development and implementation of collaborative and innovative projects that can sustain and add to employment at a national, regional and county level. The fund will help to ensure the benefits of our growing economy are felt in all regions.

REDF funding is being made available over the period from 2017 to 2020 under two competitive calls. I have committed to ensuring that each region will benefit by at least €2 million from the fund once the required standard for projects is met under the evaluation criteria. The first call under the REDF concluded in August last year, and in December 2017 I announced an allocation of €30.5 million in funding across 21 successful projects from throughout the country. On Monday 16 April, at a regional stakeholder event in Farmleigh, I announced the second competitive call under the fund for the remainder of the €60 million.

Under the first call, one project from the midlands, Irish Manufacturing Research, IMR, based in Westmeath, was approved funding under stream one of the fund. This was for major regional, multi-regional or national sectoral initiatives, attracting grants ranging from €2 million up to €5 million per project.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister, and I welcome the announcement of the second round of the fund, which will be very welcome. She visited Mullingar with me a number of months ago. We visited Trend Technologies, TEG and Robotics & Drives, companies that are operating at the cutting edge of technology. I am fully confident that these companies will grow rapidly and provide huge employment in the Mullingar area to complement what is there. I also want to mention IMR. This is a huge facility at the National Science Park. The founding members include Trend Technologies, Mergon International, SteriPack, and TEG. There are 42 live projects there, supporting many multinationals in the area and other indigenous firms. I would be grateful if the Minister could reaffirm the commitment of her Department in regard to it and the huge support it is giving to the area.

I am working with Mayor Andrew Duncan in Mullingar municipal district to organise a meeting in the Department with the head of the Mullingar chamber, Mr. Tom Hyland, and other stakeholders. We aim to drive this forward to ensure that it is a major asset to the area and makes a difference. A project like this has the capacity to create at least 500 jobs. High-end technology is something that Ireland is good at. One can see the work with robotics that has been done in Mullingar, which the Minister saw first-hand. We have heard in the past fortnight that Robotics & Drives is going to be working with the National Steering Committee on Cobotics. That is a huge area where cutting-edge technology is again at the forefront. I would be grateful if the Minister would update me on that.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy. As he rightly said, my first function in my new brief as Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation was to go to the Mullingar facility at the National Science Park. It is a wonderful facility. I have used it as an example of what other regions could do in putting forward an application and providing such a facility for the manufacturing industry. It has significant capacity to support multinationals and indigenous industry in the area, and that is what this €30 million regional enterprise development fund is all about. It is about helping regions to build on their strengths to come forward with requests for projects and to get assistance in helping them to develop them. Of course Westmeath has done very well, apart from the money received for the IMR. County Longford was successful alongside counties Cavan and Leitrim in getting funding for the development of a network of digital and innovation hubs.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister. We are all very well aware that the labour market grew by 2.9% last year, adding approximately 60,000 new jobs. Seven out of every ten new jobs is now created outside the commuter belt of Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare, which is of huge benefit to rural areas. It is projects like this that will inject new life into our provincial towns. Mullingar is a leading town in the midlands and will benefit from this. I assure the Minister that the confidence she has shown in Mullingar, IMR and the National Science Park will not be misguided. UCD has signed up, placing PhD students at the site, and Enterprise Ireland is also very keen to progress and grow the industry there. There are many good things happening. When we get niches like this that can support multinationals, work in cutting-edge areas like robotics and support new technologies in the area, it is very important that we support them. I welcome the Minister's support for it and I look forward to meeting her on it in the next month.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy is right that success breeds success. When people see success, it brings others to the area. What is being done in Mullingar is wonderful and I was delighted when we visited for a second time, that we met people from a number of local businesses, including TEG Technology, Robotics & Drives and Trend Technologies. A great deal of exciting, innovative, cutting-edge work is being done there. It is great to visit such businesses and see what they are doing. They are based beside each other in a cluster and what they are doing will attract other businesses to the area. Sometimes we hear in the House that nothing is happening outside Dublin. Those who say that should visit Mullingar Business Park where they will see exactly what is happening. Some of the companies I visited on that day expressed an interest in the regional enterprise development fund. The message very clearly is that it is open for applications and people should get them in. The closing date is 28 June. I want to see support for the strongest applications possible.