Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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454. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the extent to which she expects further job creation in areas not previously the beneficiaries of major invest, to avail of increased opportunities in the future; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23283/16]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The Government Plan is to create 200,000 jobs by 2020, including 135,000 jobs outside Dublin - my focus is to ensure that every region in the country is supported in achieving its economic potential and maximising opportunities for job creation. Balanced growth requires a renewed focus on building regional strengths and areas of competitive advantage to develop the environment for business to start, grow and succeed and to attract inward investment. Since 2015, IDA Ireland has been working towards the targets set out in its strategy, “Winning: Foreign Direct Investment 2015-2019”. Under this strategy, ambitious investment targets have been set on a regional basis for the first time. IDA Ireland aims to increase overall investment by 30% to 40% in each region. In 2016, Enterprise Ireland is targeting its clients to deliver 12,000 new jobs, €22bn in exports (from 18.6bn in 2014) and €2.4bn in new exports. EI’s new Strategy 2017-2020 will be finalised in 2016 and will contain ambitious new targets for supporting start-ups, exports and jobs across all regions. In addition, the 31 Local Enterprise Offices created over 3,500 jobs across all counties in 2015.

The Regional Action Plans for Jobs are playing a significant role in the delivery of regional enterprise and employment growth, by driving collaboration between key stakeholders and working in partnership with the enterprise sector to build on local strengths and deliver new ideas. The Plans’ objective is to increase employment by 10% to 15% in each region, and to ensure the unemployment rate in each region is within one per cent of the State average. This goal is underpinned by key targets for all regions, including increasing the number of entrepreneurs/start-ups in each region by minimum 25%, improving the survival rate and scaling performance of companies; increasing FDI investment into each region by 30% to 40%; and increasing the flow of critical skills to each region’s enterprises.

My Department is also providing funding of up to €250 million to support all Regional Action Plans, to be provided over the next five years to Enterprise Ireland and IDA. This comprises a €150m Regional Property Programme delivered by IDA and up to €100 million available through three Enterprise Ireland competitive calls.

As part of this programme of investment, IDA Ireland is building nine advance facilities around the country, in particular in locations where the private sector has been slow to build. This programme of investment will ensure that there is an adequate supply of first-class property solutions to attract investment. This is a positive development for attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into regional locations. It will provide access to modern property solutions which, when combined with a strong local talent pool and existing FDI cluster, will give these locations an enhanced proposition to offer international investors.

The Enterprise Ireland competitive calls are open to all regions, and are targeted at innovative and collaborative approaches to supporting local job creation. In June this year, I announced an initial allocation of €5million in competitive funding for 48 local and regional initiatives across the country under two competitive regional funding calls administered by Enterprise Ireland; the LEO Competitive Fund and the Community Enterprise Initiative. Further competitive regional funding calls will be rolled out on a phased basis.