Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 58: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation the progress that has been made to date in implementing the recommendations of the mid-west task force from its interim report of July 2009; the progress that have been made to date in dealing with each of the recommendations in respect of action being taken by his Department in assessing the recommendations and implementing them and the status of each recommendation; the progress that has been made in seeking and restoring Objective 1 status for Raheen Business Park, the National Technology Park and Shannon Free Zone in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22533/10]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The Task Force completed its Interim Report which was presented to the Tánaiste by the Task Force chairman Mr Denis Brosnan last July. Since then the Government has been responding to the recommendations under the various headings. Last September, the Tánaiste sent the Task Force a report on responses up to that time. Following completion of a cross-departmental consultation, taking account of Ministers' budgets for 2010, with other Ministers and all relevant Divisions and agencies in my Department, the Tánaiste and Minister of State made detailed Statements to the Dáil on 28 January, 2010, on the issue. A summary on responses up to March, 2010, was provided in response to a Parliamentary Question.

The situation in relation to responses is now being updated again and I expect to meet with Mr Brosnan in the next week or so to inform him on the current state of play in relation to the recommendations. I shall also circulate the updated response to Deputies for information. This latest response will provide an update on the extensive multi-agency response which has been under way since the Dell-related job losses were announced, and which was augmented by the funding approved late last year under the EU Globalisation Adjustment Fund.

The agency-delivered response provides information & services to individual employees facing unemployment to facilitate them to re-train, to re-educate or to start a new business, and delivers specific initiatives to indigenous sub-supply companies in the Mid-West to explore alternative markets, products and business opportunities. Services to affected workers are delivered in particular through Fás, EI, CEBs, VECs and the education institutions. The latest update on responses to the recommendations will also contain details of the response to all of the recommendations on Enterprise Development, including responses delivered through IDA, Shannon Development, Enterprise Ireland and the County Enterprise Boards, as well as in relation to grant aid rates and the development of industrial estates in Limerick. It will also give details on the response to the other recommendations in the Task Force Report.