Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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571. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the potential investment projects her Department put forward to the Department of Finance task force report for the European Fund for Strategic Investment in each year since it was established. [14923/17]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The European Fund for Strategic Investment, EFSI, is an EU initiative launched jointly by the European Investment Bank, EIB, Group and the European Commission.

The initiative is designed to help overcome the  low levels of private investment in in key areas such as infrastructure, education, research and innovation, as well as risk finance for small businesses in the European Union by mobilising private financing for strategic investments. The EU contribution of €21 billion to the EFSI is expected to unlock a total investment, public and private, of €315 billion through a multiplier effect.

In September 2014 the Special Task Force on Investment in the EU was established in response to a request by the EU Economic and Finance Ministers. It was jointly led by the European Commission and the European Investment Bank, EIB, and included representatives of all EU Member States. It was mandated to identify concrete actions to boost investment, including a pipeline of potentially viable projects of European relevance to be realised in the short and medium term.  

In response to a request for submissions from the Task Force, 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 containing the potential investment projects 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 & Innovation hubs:

(i) Southern Region: Manufacturing Competitiveness,

(ii) Border Region: Smart Grids & Cities,

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

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

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