Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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130. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation his views on the number of jobs he anticipates the south-west region Action Plan for Jobs 2015 to 2017 will help create; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29307/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The aim of the Action Plan for Jobs is to support enterprise growth and job creation in every region of the country. While we have made great progress in addressing our unemployment and competitiveness challenges and in building a new, sustainable enterprise economy driven by skills, innovation and success in markets, we need to sustain the momentum and stretch ourselves further if we are to achieve sustainable full employment by 2018 and ensure that all parts of our regions benefit from the recovery. In the South West Region, since the launch of the national Action Plan for Jobs process four years ago where the rate of unemployment in the South West Region has fallen from 13.5% in 2011 to 10.6% in Q4 2014 and our ambition is to reduce this further.

The Action Plan for Jobs for the South West Region is about building on the capabilities and strengths of the region, covering counties Cork and Kerry, to develop a more dynamic, internationally competitive and sustainable enterprise economy that can provide well paid jobs and secure sustainable full employment over the long term. Employment in the South West declined by 45,600 (15%) during the crash; since the national Action Plan for Jobs was launched in Q1 2012 jobs in the region have grown by 11,200 (4%).

Our ambition is to achieve full employment by 2018 and vibrant and competitive regions are central to realising that ambition. The aim of the Action Plan for Jobs Regional (APJR) for the South West is to develop the full potential of the region for enterprise and job creation, building upon its assets and areas of competitive advantage. This can only be achieved by a new level of collaboration among key players in the region working to achieve common goals.

The primary objective of this APJR is to have a further 10 to 15 per cent at work in the region by 2020 and to ensure the unemployment rate is within 1% of the State average. Achieving this goal in the SW will contribute to the overall ambition of creating sustainable full employment in Ireland from 2018 onwards. Successful implementation of the Plan for Kerry and Cork could see creation the creation of between 27,780 and 41,670 additional jobs in the region by 2020.

The levels of employment growth actually achieved within that range will depend on factors including the level of support and collaboration within the local community for the Plan, and the level of collaboration between organisations in the region and the main Government bodies involved in the plan. Based on all the evidence and the strong buy-in for the process up to this point I believe it is realistic to target 40,000 additional jobs in the region by 2020. I am delighted Bob Savage, head of EMC in Cork, has agreed to chair a joint public-private sector Implementation Group to drive forward the delivery of the Plan.

The South West Plan covers counties Kerry and Cork, and key sectors targeted as part of the plan include agri-food, tourism, life sciences, manufacturing and ICT, as well as high-potential emerging sectors such as multimedia/content and the green economy, energy and marine. Actions in the Plan to be delivered over the period 2015-2017 include new measures to increase the number of businesses starting-up, scaling and surviving, delivered through a range of measures including more co-working space and mentoring for entrepreneurs and new funding through competitive calls, new initiatives to increase employment in exporting companies, delivered by adding 30-40% to the number of IDA investments achieved, building an IDA advance facility in Tralee, increasing enterprise-research collaborations and increasing the levels of workforce training and development activity. A range of actions are also set out to promote new sources of growth in the region including in the content and multimedia sector, actions to develop innovative energy technology and solutions combining the regions strengths in research and enterprise, developing the green economy in the region and rolling out “smart region” infrastructure such as sensors for traffic and utility management.

To support the Regional Action Plan for Jobs Process, my Department through EI and IDA, will provide €250m in additional funding over five years to support the implementation of the Regional Action Plans. This comprises €150m for IDA Ireland to roll out a 5-year capital investment programme and €100m to support and encourage regional stakeholders in working together on best practice initiatives, provided by DJEI through Enterprise Ireland and a series of competitive calls. The first tranche of applications for €10 million in competitive funding to support initiatives proposed by the LEOs and to support the development Community Enterprise Centres in all regions are currently being assessed.