Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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279. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the total number of staff that availed of Enterprise Ireland's voluntary leaving programme in 2015 and 2016; the approximate number of new posts that will be created at the agency in 2017 following budget 2017 allocations; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35664/16]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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In recent years, Enterprise Ireland has implemented an ambitious reform agenda to ensure more effective delivery of services to Enterprise Ireland clients. As part of the organisation’s resource plan, Enterprise Ireland launched a Voluntary Leaving Programme in November 2014, which closed in January 2015. Fifty-one staff availed of the Voluntary Leaving Programme in 2015 and 2016. The reform agenda included an ongoing process to analyse the skills and capabilities of the organisation. Recruitment has been ongoing within the agency to address critical gaps in the management structure and current skill gaps in emerging and future sectors to reflect the needs of Irish industry.

In Budget 2017, I secured additional pay monies which will provide for 50+ new posts for the Department and its agencies to respond to Brexit and to work with companies to help them respond to the challenges and opportunities.

Enterprise Ireland has a critical contribution to make in my Department’s overall strategic response to Brexit. Therefore, Enterprise Ireland will create 39 new posts in 2017 in targeted overseas markets including in the UK and also in Dublin, to prepare companies at home and in market to manage the challenges that arise as a result of Brexit. This immediate need is aligned with Enterprise Ireland’s ongoing strategic objective to diversify Ireland’s export trade by supporting clients to continue to sustain and win new business in existing markets while exploring opportunities in new markets.

New posts will be created in a number of overseas markets where Enterprise Ireland and their client companies see strategic opportunities. It will be hugely important to intensify export growth to other markets, to reduce reliance on the UK, re-orienting companies towards North America, Canada, Asia and the Middle-East. On foot of 2015 export figures, there is immediate opportunity and potential for strengthening our foothold in existing established markets and for diversified export growth. Last year sales to North American grew by 27%, Northern Europe by 8% and Asia-PAC by 11%.

The additional staff placed in the UK will provide market expertise in support of clients dependent on the UK market, to help them sustain existing sales and to win new business. Some 1500 Enterprise Ireland client companies have recorded exports to the UK and it will remain a priority market for many Irish exporters, particularly first-time exporters.

In relation to additional staff in Dublin, the experience of the Department, through Enterprise Ireland, is that those clients who are more prepared before entering the market and engaging with in-market Enterprise Ireland teams, have a greater chance of sustained success. To maintain and grow market share in the UK and broaden the global exporting figures, companies need to be more competitive and innovative. For Enterprise Ireland, that means proactive engagement with clients in delivering their suite of programmes, such as LEAN, innovation and R&D projects, management and leadership capability as well as sales and marketing and export diversification strategies. This suite of supports will help companies reduce supply-chain costs and increase efficiencies as a means of improving operating margins, building market share and creating new market opportunities.

Enhancing EI’s Irish based team will increase client preparedness before they enter the market and ensure that the resources in market are being used strategically and to best effect.

Other key elements of the 2017 Enterprise Ireland strategy include an enhanced programme of trade and investment missions and other trade promotional events and the rollout of EI’s new ‘Global Ambition Campaign’ which will promote Irish companies and their products and services to international buyers.