Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to discuss this report and what is being done in the overall area. We must bear in mind that the report covers some of the growth and boom years from 2004 to 2013, thus highlighting many issues in the regions, but it stops short of including this year when we are seeing much growth throughout the country.

Significant progress has been made since 2011 in restructuring and transforming Ireland's economy and in reforming the way we support business and job creation in Ireland. I am pleased to report that this growth in employment is now in evidence across all sectors of the economy and across all regions. It is clear from the data for the past two or three quarters that there is a regional spread. There would have been a concern a year ago or even less that much of the new growth was in Leinster and certainly in Dublin. It is clear from the past two or three quarterly reports that it is now pushing out to all regions and we must ensure we build on that. The analysis by the Western Development Commission on Trends in Agency Assisted Employment in the Western Region for the period 2004 to 2013 highlights some of the progress achieved in this regard across the western region.

I am also pleased to record that the enterprise development agencies, Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, in their end-of-year statements for 2014 have highlighted the continuing trend of growth in employment across all regions. The full results by regions will be published by my Department in the coming weeks and hopefully that will provide us with more data on which we can work. We are working hard to sustain that level of jobs growth and recovery in the coming year, in particular to sustain the growth in modem manufacturing and internationally traded services recorded in the western region in recent years, which as the Senator said is an issue in the western region and we need to build on that.

The Action Plan for Jobs is at the heart of the Government's approach to growing jobs in the economy through creating the best environment for enterprises to start, grow, scale and create employment. The annual action plans are developed on a co-ordinated basis across Government by my Department, and we have established a process of quarterly monitoring and reporting in detail on the implementation of measures in the Action Plan for Jobs to support the transformation of the economy, with a success rate of over 90%.

Now in its fourth year, the Action Plan for Jobs process continues to have an impact. Almost 80,000 have been created in the private sector during the past three action plans for jobs. The next action plan, which is due in the next couple of weeks, will set more targets covering all regions and involve all the agencies. This year's plan comes in the context of improving economic and employment data. The rate of unemployment has declined from a peak of 15.1% at the start of 2012 to 10.6% at the end of 2014. Data for the regions mentioned show that the unemployment rates are coming down but we want to get the rate down much more quickly. We also recognise that it is a work in progress.

One of the factors that has made the Action Plan for Jobs process such a success has been the input, support and partnership with business and others in developing and progressing the plans for all the regions. We have consulted extensively in recent months with all Departments and with other stakeholders and organisations. The next action plan should help the spread of job creation into the regions.

In terms of regional economic development and ensuring every region can fulfil its potential, we will build on the progress made in 2014 in establishing a process to design and implement regional enterprise strategies. These regional enterprise strategies are akin to action plans for jobs for every region. The formulation of regional enterprise strategies will enable us to identify the sustainable competitive strengths of each region, which have also been highlighted in the report, and to better integrate the efforts of the enterprise development agencies and other regional stakeholders in supporting enterprise growth and jobs in areas of potential. We hope to publish these strategies by mid-year.

I believe that for every region to achieve its potential, a partnership approach is essential among all the key stakeholders, public and private. Each of the regional enterprise strategies will set out the investment and job creation targets being set for the enterprise development agencies for the regions for the coming five years. In addition to setting out the regional commitments by the development agencies and the local enterprise offices, we will also seek to encompass the supporting actions of the full range of stakeholders, including local authorities, education and training providers and representative bodies, to the common goal of enterprise, growth and jobs in the regions to get to the target of full employment by 2018.

I think the Action Plan for Jobs concept has worked because it has focused people's minds across all agencies and Departments. If we can mirror that plan at a regional level to bring all the various agencies together, including the chambers of commerce and organisations, to focus their minds with a list of actions, that will benefit each region and will concentrate on the strengths and weaknesses of each region. I am conscious that the regions covered by this report will not necessarily match up with the regions which we are trying to cover as an enterprise. There will be three or four regional strategies. It is important that we try, as locally as possible, to target certain areas. This has worked in certain places, such as in Waterford, and we are building on it. The idea is right and with some luck it should address some of the Senator's concerns and, hopefully, there will be involvement by all stakeholders.