Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 33: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation the plans he has put in place to assist and promote a programme for economic recovery sector by sector; the extent to which he has identified practices and procedures inhibiting any such progress; if he has had specific discussions with stakeholders to determine a strategy; if he has taken any steps to address any arising issues; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45603/10]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The National Recovery Plan 2011-2014, published on 24 November 2010, is a strategy for economic recovery with the aim of restoring stability to the public finances, improving Ireland's cost competitiveness, stimulating enterprise growth and job creation. There are two pillars to the strategy for competitiveness, growth and employment a) remove potential structural impediments to competitiveness, growth and employment creation and b) pursue appropriate sectoral policies to encourage export growth and recovery of domestic demand.

The Plan sets out a range of specific actions and supports designed to:

· Spur further improvements in competitiveness across all sectors of the economy including measures to cut input costs to business; in energy, waste, transport, broadband infrastructure, professional fees, property and labour.

· Foster export growth and a recovery of domestic demand.

· Provide investment of €2.2 billion in capital over the four years of the Plan for the Enterprise Agencies, which will enable them to create jobs across the economy, through:

o supporting indigenous firms to increase exports,

o winning new foreign investment, and

o targeting and supporting Research, Development and innovation in companies, to boost productivity, exports, growth and jobs.

Key among the measures outlined in the Recovery Plan are proposals to remove barriers to employment, specifically a reduction in the minimum wage, reform of the social welfare system to incentivise work and eliminate unemployment traps as well as the re-invigoration of existing activation policies to ensure that the unemployed can make a swift return to work. These measures together with other actions already underway to restore fiscal stability, enhance access to credit, prioritise capital investment and to improve international competitiveness will impact positively across all sectors of the economy.

There are a wide range of other initiatives and actions already underway to assist economic recovery. Forfás recently published a report "Making it Happen – Growing Enterprise for Ireland" which sets out a series of recommendations that can help to improve the competitiveness of the economy and facilitate enterprise growth and job creation. The report includes 40 high level recommendations, supplemented by a number of sector-specific recommendations, aimed at addressing barriers to growth and accelerating potential in thirteen different sectors, such as ICT, Healthcare Life Sciences, International Financial Services, Agri Food, Green Technologies and Education Services. The sectoral analysis in this report was informed by the NCC report published in December 2009, Driving Export Growth: Statement on Sectoral Competitiveness, which identifies the key competitiveness issues facing Ireland's main existing and emerging export sectors and the sector specific policy actions required to address them.

In September last, the Taoiseach launched the five-year integrated Government plan for trade, tourism and investment. This has set a number of ambitious targets to be achieved by 2015 including the generation of 300,000 jobs between direct and spin off employment. The overall objective of the strategy and its action plan is to marshal and coordinate the resources of the State in a way that best supports firms, of all sizes, in all parts of the country, which are trying to trade and grow their business overseas. The strategy presents a suite of actions for building on existing strengths and driving trade relations in existing as well as new and emerging economies. I myself, my Ministers of State and the relevant officials in my Department and its agencies engage extensively, as appropriate, with our stakeholders on all key strategic initiatives that are being developed.