Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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206. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the extent to which her Department encourages co-operation between job creation interests in County Kildare and Maynooth college with particular reference to the obvious benefits accruing from such a combination of interests; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33190/16]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Collaboration between job creation interests in the private and public sectors, together with the Higher Education Institutions, plays an important role in delivering on new ideas and initiatives to support job creation throughout the regions.

In this context, 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 Mid East Action Plan was launched in January 2016. The overarching objective of the Plan is to support the creation of an extra 25,000 jobs across Kildare, Meath and Wicklow by 2020. This represents an important step towards the Government’s ambition of creating 200,000 jobs across the State by 2020, with 135,000 of these to be outside Dublin.

The Mid-East Action Plan is being monitored and driven by an Implementation Committees, comprising representatives from the Enterprise Sector, as well as the Local Authorities, Enterprise Agencies, and other public bodies in the region, including Maynooth University.

Maynooth University has been involved in delivering several actions in the Plan in partnership with other public and private organisation, including Enterprise Agencies, the Local Enterprise Offices, and local business networks.

Examples of such collaborative initiative include the establishment of a Regional Skills Forum to foster better engagement between education providers, employers and other regional stakeholders, including Enterprise Agencies, on an ongoing basis, to collaborate in building the skills of the region. Maynooth University will also establish a ‘top table’ advisory forum on linking University and regional employment needs, which will include representation from IDA and Enterprise Ireland.

Other actions included in the Plan cover the Technology Transfer Strengthening Initiative, supported by Enterprise Ireland and Knowledge Transfer Ireland, which focuses on enabling the transfer of commercially valuable research outputs into industry; the New Frontiers Entrepreneur Development Programme - Enterprise Ireland’s national entrepreneur development programme for innovative, early-stage start-ups; and the part-funding by Enterprise Ireland of a new campus enterprise and technology hub (‘Eolas’) at Maynooth University, one of the key aims of which is to foster collaboration with industry and facilitate research commercialisation opportunities.