Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

807. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation further to Parliamentary Question No. 332 of 1 February 2017, if she will provide a list of projects put forward by her Department in November 2014 to the Department of Finance for inclusion in the submission to the task force established to develop an EU investment project pipeline for the European Funding for Strategic Investment. [11550/17]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

In response to the request for submissions from the EU Task Force on Investment of potential investment projects as part of its scoping exercise, a joint proposal was submitted by agencies operating under the auspices of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. The agencies (Enterprise Ireland, the Local Enterprise Offices, IDA Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland) put forward a proposal related to the Knowledge and Digital Economy sector, entitled "Regional Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions".

The proposal was a regionally focused enterprise funding package with 3 strands:

(1) Regional Enterprise (€50m) funding innovation infrastructure and competitive collaboration. The purpose of this funding is to stimulate the enhancement of the local and regional enterprise eco-system by competitively offering to co-finance projects proposed by local/regional alliances.

(2) Enhance enterprise innovative capacity within the regions (€200m) via four Research, Development and Innovation hubs:

(i) Southern Region: Manufacturing Competitiveness,

(ii) Border Region: Smart Grids and Cities,

(iii)Eastern Region: Digital Platforms, Content and Applications,

(iv)Midlands Region: Sustainable Food Production and Processing.

(3) Improve infrastructural supports (€30m) to the regional enterprise base in order to increase employment opportunities and promote economic growth and social inclusion.