Written answers

Tuesday, 3 November 2015

Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Action Plan for Jobs

Photo of Seán KyneSeán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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365. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the action has Department has taken on delivering the regional potential strand of the 2015 Action Plan for Jobs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37157/15]

Photo of Richard BrutonRichard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Since the start of the Action Plan for Jobs process in 2012, employment has increased by over 133,000 across the economy as a whole and has exceeded the initial target set by the Government for 2016. However, not all regions are yet fully experiencing the benefits of economic recovery. The 2015 Action Plan for Jobs includes a Disruptive Reform to develop the potential of the regions to support enterprise growth and job creation. A key element of this disruptive reform involves the development of 8 Regional Action Plans for Jobs, to include actions to be taken across a range of Departments and agencies to ensure that all regions of the country can fulfil their enterprise and jobs potential.

The objective of the Regional Action Plans is to strengthen and develop regional collaboration by encouraging local authorities, regional bodies, higher education institutions, the private sector and communities to come forward with innovative ideas to boost job creation in their area.The aim is to capitalise on regional strengths, assets and areas of competitive advantage in order to support businesses in each region to start-up, succeed, expand, and export.

To date four plans (Midlands, South West, South East and Mid West have been published, The West plan will be launched in November, with the remaining three (Border, Mid East, Dublin) currently in development and due for launch as soon as possible.

Each regional Action Plan includes a series of practical actions to support enterprise growth and job creation in the region, within clear timelines for delivery.The Action Plans seek to capitalise on the particular strengths and opportunities of each region and have been developed by my Department with the support of Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, in close consultation with regional stakeholders from the public and private sectors.

As is the case with the national Action Plan process, it is the cumulative effect of delivering the actions in the regional Plans that will make a real and lasting impact on the business environment and jobs in the regions. While there is already a lot of collaboration between public bodies, Higher Education Institutions, the private sector and communities at local level, a central aim of the regional Action Plans for Jobs is to deepen collaboration at regional level to boost job creation.

The Regional Action Plans will cover the three-year period 2015-2017 to allow for the process to take hold and develop, and to capture a more medium-term ambition for the regions. However, the Regional Action Plans need to be flexible and dynamic to allow additional actions and ideas to be added as they emerge over the period of the Plan. Additional actions will arise, for example, from the competitive funding calls announced by Enterprise Ireland.

The success of the regional Action Plans will lie in the delivery of the actions on schedule. At national level, the Action Plan for Jobs has achieved the delivery of over 90% of actions since the process commenced in 2012. The process is underpinned by robust reporting arrangements, with the publication by the Government of Quarterly reports, setting out the progress on each of the actions due for delivery. It is intended to replicate the monitoring model in respect of the regional Action Plans for Jobs, with some modifications and simplifications. For example, given the longer timeframe of the regional Plans, actions will be monitored on a 6 monthly basis (rather than Quarterly), with twice yearly updates to be published in each region.

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