Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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70. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the extent to which he and his Department have identified those areas most seriously affected by job losses in the past eight years; the action taken, or proposed, to address the issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38582/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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A key objective of the Action Plan for Jobs process, which this Government commenced in 2012, was to rebuild our economy based on enterprise and entrepreneurship, talent, innovation and exports and provide a solid foundation for future growth. Irish industry has to been to the forefront of the economic recovery, with our enterprises and entrepreneurs innovating, developing and improving their products and services to meet the needs of customers in markets across the globe.

The goal of this Government has been to replace all of the jobs lost during the economic crisis and deliver sustainable full employment by the end of 2018. This whole of Government effort has been integrated into the Action Plan for Jobs process which aims to strengthen the enterprise base, support entrepreneurship, improve competitiveness and support regional development. Since the launch of the first plan in Q1 2012, 126,000 more people are at work - exceeding the original target of an additional 100,000 jobs by 2016.

Over the last eight years, in relation to jobs in clients of IDA and Enterprise Ireland, while there were at total of 34,980 full-time jobs lost in the 5 period 2007-2011, this trend of job losses has been reversed over the last three years with full time employment growing by 34,000 between 2012 and 2014 and an additional 4,750 part-time jobs have been created over the period. We have worked hard at local level to promote entrepreneurship and growth and to attract new investment to the areas that suffered most in terms of job losses, including for example through establishment of specific groups such as the South East Forum and Action Plan in 2011 to focus on the needs of that region, which had an unemployment rate among the highest in the country at that time. In the case of the South East region, the unemployment rate fell from 20.1% in 2012 to 12.0% at the end of 2014.

The Regional Action Plans for Jobs Initiative was launched by Government in February of this year. The purpose of this initiative is to identify a range of actions aimed at facilitating each region to achieve its economic potential and raise employment levels in each of the regions.

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.

In launching the Action Plan for Jobs Regional initiative earlier this year, the Government announced that funding of up to €250 million will be made available over the next five years to support job creation through enterprise growth in the regions. It is the intention that IDA Ireland will deliver a Regional Property Programme of €150 million and a further sum of up to €100 million will be made available through Enterprise Ireland over the next five years to support innovative and collaborative approaches to support job creation across the regions.

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 will be flexible and dynamic to allow additional actions and ideas to be added as they emerge over the period of the Plan.

My intention is to publish the 2016 Action Plan in mid-January 2016. My Department is currently developing the 2016 Plan and is engaging bilaterally with Government Departments to identify actions to ensure that the 2016 Plan is as ambitious and impactful as possible and keeps us on track to achieve our goal to have 2.1 million people in employment by 2018.