Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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88. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the extent to which economic development, and as a consequence, job creation, will spread evenly throughout the country; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2525/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Enterprise 2025, the Government’s long-term enterprise policy was launched in November last year. It is an ambitious strategy, with the objective of delivering growth over the next decade that is sustainable, led by strong export performance, builds on our sectoral strengths, and that is underpinned by innovation, productivity, cost effectiveness and competitiveness. We aim to build resilience into our economy so that we do not suffer again as we have done in the past number of years. Earlier this week we launched the fifth Action Plan for Jobs. A key objective of the Action Plan for Jobs process has been 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 2016 Plan is the first in a new phase of the Action Plan for Jobs process, after the original target of 100,000 extra jobs by 2016 was achieved last year, 21 months ahead of schedule. Since the first Action Plan for Jobs was launched in Q1 2012, 135,800 more people are at work. The unemployment rate has fallen below nine per cent for the first time since 2008, down from a high of 15.1 per cent in early 2012 to 8.8 per cent in December 2015.

We set a target in 2012 to increase employment by 100,000 by 2016. We achieved that ambitious target and have now exceeded it, with employment growing and unemployment reducing in every region. We want to go further and to replace all the jobs lost during the recession and to realise sustainable full employment over the longer term. Enterprise 2025 sets out a clear statement of ambition, including that we will have 2.18 million people at work by 2020, with the unemployment rate down to 6 percent and that the unemployment in all regions not more than one percent above the national average.

Achieving this objective at regional level will require a renewed focus on building on the strengths of each region to develop the attractive and competitive environments for business to start, grow and succeed on international markets and to attract inward investment. We started the process of rebuilding the capacity of the regions with the launch of the Regional Action Plans for Jobs this year. In the case of seven of the regions for which we have published Regional Plans, we are now firmly moving into the implementation phase of the process and I met with the enterprise champions for each of the regions last week in Athlone.

Our objective is to establish vibrant ecosystems for entrepreneurship, to stimulate clusters of scale and international visibility in areas of strength and to ensure that Ireland and our regions continue to be the best places to succeed in business.

Through a partnership approach, with enterprise, representative bodies, the enterprise development agencies, Local Enterprise Offices and others, and based on a framework of measurable impacts, we will deliver a step change in enterprise performance and resilience will see a significant increase in Irish owned companies of scale, contributing to Ireland’s reputation for innovation in international markets. The enterprise agencies and the LEOs will use their budgets in the optimal way to deliver on the potential for enterprise growth in the regions. In addition, earlier this year, we announced additional funding to support implementation of the regional Action Plans of €250m over the coming years. This comprises €150m of investment by IDA Ireland in advanced property solutions in the regions and €100m in competitive funding through Enterprise Ireland to support community enterprise initiatives, innovative initiatives by the Local Enterprise Offices and to support regional collaborative and clustering initiatives by public and private sector bodies and enterprises.