Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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284. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the amount of investment from capital spending his Department has made in County Kildare since 2011; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29913/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department have provided funding for a range of initiatives to assist enterprise development and research in County Kildare on an ongoing basis.

Funding for individual companies from my Department is delivered by IDA Ireland in respect of the Multinational sector, by Enterprise Ireland in respect of SMEs which are Irish owned and by the Local Employment Offices (formerly the County Enterprise Boards) for the Micro enterprise sector.

Details of grants paid to companies in County Kildare by these three bodies for the period 2011-2014 are given on the following table.

Other related initiatives from Enterprise Ireland include funding provided to the National University of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM) under the Third Level Research and Innovation Partnership Funding Programme. This has involved the following expenditure on Research and Development funding: 2012 - €3,350,667; 2013 - €2,465,424; 2014 - €1,870,668; 2015 - €502,767 to date.

A total of €104,844 has been paid in respect of Innovation Vouchers under that programme in County Kildare during that period. In addition, my Department, through Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) funded Researchers in the National University of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM) as follows: 2011 - €6,731,609; 2012 - €6,887,086; 2013 - €3,424,580; 2014 - €4,196,829.

NUIM currently has approximately 37 active awards across all SFI programmes.

Finally, my Department has been working on the preparation of Regional Action Plans for Jobs as part of the drive to increase the level of job creation across the country. Eight Regional Action Plans will be delivered this year, building on the success of the national Action Plan for Jobs process, which has contributed to the creation of over 100,000 new jobs since 2012. Two of the Regional Plans have recently been published and significant progress has been made in preparing the Action Plan for the Mid East region, in consultation with key stakeholders there, and I look forward to launching it later this year.