Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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123. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation how he will measure the success or otherwise of the south-west regional Action Plan for Jobs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5028/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The core objective of the South West Action Plan for Jobs is to support an ambitious programme of enterprise growth and job creation in region and it is on job creation that we will measure the success or otherwise of the Plan. The South West Action Plan for Jobs set a target to increase employment in the region by 10-15%, with the potential for up to an additional 40,000 to be employed in 2020. Good progress was made in relation to job creation in 2015, most notably with the unemployment in the South West Region falling from 10.6% in Q4 2014 to 7.4% in Q4 2015, according to the CSO's latest Quarterly National Household Survey.

Overall, the CSO is reporting an increase in employment in the South West of 8,300 in 2015, with total employment in the region reaching 283,900, an increase of 3% on the numbers employed at the end of 2014. Significantly, almost two-thirds or 5,468 of these jobs were in export-oriented businesses supported by Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland. Employment in Enterprise Ireland firms increased by 1,982 in 2015 to 28,673 and employment in IDA Ireland supported firms increased by over 3,486 to reach a new record high of 33,831.

The Action Plan for Jobs for the South West Region is about building on the capabilities and strengths of the region, covering counties Cork and Kerry, to develop a more dynamic, internationally competitive and sustainable enterprise economy that can provide well paid jobs and secure sustainable full employment over the long term. The SW Action Plan includes 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.

I am pleased that the Implementation Group in the South West is being led by Mr Bob Savage, Managing Director of EMC, includes public and private sector stakeholders from Cork and Kerry. The Implementation Group met most recently at the end of February to review progress and will report by mid-year on the delivery of actions to date and the progress on strategic initiatives for the region including in the areas of agrifood, tourism, life sciences, manufacturing and ICT, as well as high-potential emerging sectors like multimedia/content and the green economy, energy and marine. Actions in the Plan to be delivered over the coming period include measures to achieve an increase of 40-50% in the number of businesses starting-up, scaling and surviving, to achieve a 20% increase in employment in exporting companies, delivered by winning 139 IDA investments, building an IDA advance facility in Tralee and a 50% increase in enterprise-research collaborations and other measures to support growth in Irish exporting companies.

Talent and skills development is a key priority for the region and the actions set out are targeted at achieving a doubling in the level of workforce training and development activity in the region, to be delivered in part by progressing the Munster Technological University project and establishing an Employer and Education Skills Forum.

Actions are also set out to increase by 40% agrifood output to 2020 and to achieve a 33% increase in overseas tourist numbers, in addition to developing new sectors, including the content/multimedia sector, innovative energy technology and the green economy and rolling out “smart region” infrastructure.