Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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9. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment further to Parliamentary Question No. 107 of 9 December 2021, the status of the new west regional enterprise plan to 2024; when the plan will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6828/22]

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I am asking about the status of the new west regional enterprise plan, which I have followed assiduously. Where is the plan at? Is it in the Minister's office or the Department and when will it be published?

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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Regional enterprise development and sustainable local job creation continues to be a key policy priority of mine and this Government.

Throughout 2021, my Department has overseen the development of nine new regional enterprise plans to 2024, including for the west, which covers counties Galway, Mayo and Roscommon. These plans are developed by regional stakeholders who are keenly aware of the growth opportunities and vulnerabilities in their region. The west regional steering committee continues to be chaired by Ms Evelyn O’Toole, founder and CEO of Complete Laboratory Solutions. Steering committee members include Enterprise Ireland, the LEOs, regional assemblies, local authorities, higher education bodies, the Western Development Commission and others, all of which are focused on creating and sustaining employment opportunities in the region. I was pleased to lead out on the west in the Department.

Following a review of the outgoing regional plan to 2020 and consideration of future thematic areas of focus, the steering committee and stakeholders in the west participated in a virtual consultation event to contribute to the focus and development of the new plan. The new regional enterprise plan for the west is a result of the work of these stakeholders and their in-depth engagement across the region. The plan will contain a set of objectives and related actions to be delivered by the end of 2024. These objectives are complementary to and support existing Government and agency initiatives.

The regional enterprise plans to 2024 are currently being finalised by my Department and it is intended that the west regional enterprise plan will be published and launched in March this year.

The Department has approved in excess of €126 million in funding nationally since 2017. To date, the west region has secured almost €19 million of that. We are finalising a new significant source of funding to drive implementation of the nine new regional plans. I expect we will announce details on new regional funding shortly.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State for the background. It is very helpful and I have learned a lot from all the questions and answers that I have tabled. However, the question was about the status of the plan and when it would be published. Do I take it from the reply that the plan is currently with the Department, that it is finished with the steering group, it has produced a completed plan which the Minister of State and the Department is looking at and it will be published in March? Is that the answer to my question?

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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The draft plan is completed. We worked with the stakeholders and I took the opportunity to acknowledge the good work that the stakeholders have done over the past six months in bringing the plan and we will launch it in March. No doubt the Deputy will be invited to the launch.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State. It will be published in March and it is before the Department. Will the Department be making changes to it? Has it identified the new way forward and the transformative actions that are needed as a result of climate and biodiversity change and the pandemic? This will be a completely different plan if we are going to make language mean something. I pointed out to the Minister of State's colleague previously that it is beyond my capacity to understand how the indigenous industry of wool was never examined by the Department. I know that there is now a feasibility study but it seems it was a crucial industry that should have been examined ages ago. The same applies regarding seaweed. We have had no plan since 2020 so there can be no further delay in the publication of the plan.

Will the Minister of State clarify the sources of funding that will be looked at? I will re-echo Deputy Brendan Smith's point on local authorities. Only last week or the week before, Galway County Council did not have enough staff nor resources to run a basic sweeping service on the streets or a bulky collection service. It seems to be pulled in every direction with developers plans with no overall plan for the common good. It is something that I would like to return to. I am all for enterprise.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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To return to what I said at the beginning, these are bottom-up plans. They are plans that are derived by the key stakeholders themselves in each region. They are the people who know the opportunities and threats in their respective communities. The Ireland west plan is chaired by a very good entrepreneur who has created a very successful company and job opportunities in the west and who is working collaboratively with the key stakeholders in the west to devise a plan that is unique to the west of Ireland. That is how the plan originated.

It will be published in March and by the time we launch the plans we will launch the funding streams that will be available to each region. Under the previous plans, there was a funding stream of €126 million. We anticipate that funding stream will be even higher this year to ensure that the aspirations of each plan, which is unique to its region, can be realised.