Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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198. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of net jobs created since the Action Plan for Jobs was established in each Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics 3 Region, in 2015 to date, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45199/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Action Plan for Jobs has been an annual process whereby changes right across Government have been developed, and then implemented with a strict timetable overseen from the Taoiseach’s Office. The focus of the actions is to achieve key targets, principally getting 100,000 people back at work and improving the business environment for growing strong enterprises.

The APJ has focused on three main areas:

- programmes that have made it easier for enterprises to establish and grow jobs;

- sectors that can be successfully developed; and

- measures that allow Irish business compete more successfully.

It has been a successful policy approach:

- the job target has already been exceeded 21 months ahead of the target date of end 2016;

- the jobs are in sectors which have solid and sustainable foundations with good prospects;

- Irish competitiveness has significantly improved.

In 2015, we have deepened the action plan process by developing Regional Action Plans which can drive the same sort of collaboration at Regional level. Since the start of the Action Plan for Jobs process 135,800 new jobs have been created, on a seasonally adjusted basis. Employment has grown in all regions of the country, as set out in Table 1 below.

Table 1. Persons aged 15 years and over in Employment by NUTS 3 Region, Q1 2012 & Q3 2015

Table 2 sets out the annual net change in full and part time employment for each year since the launch of the Action Plan for Jobs in 2012 in firms supported by the enterprise agencies, Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland. The 2015 Annual Employment Survey of agency-assisted clients is currently being completed by my Department.

Table 2. Net Change in Employment in Enterprise Agency assisted-clients, full and part time jobs, NUTS 3 Regions, 2012, 2013 & 2014

My intention is to publish the 2016 Action Plan in mid-January 2016. My Department is currently developing the 2016 Action Plan and is engaging bilaterally with enterprises and 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.