Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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1396. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the degree to which she can encourage indigenous and foreign direct investment in rural areas in order to achieve a national balance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20814/17]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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My Department, through Enterprise Ireland (EI) and the Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) provide a range of supports to help Irish companies start, grow and export.

The 31 LEOs are in every county supporting startups and microenterprises. I recently published the LEO annual jobs survey results which highlights three consecutive years of local jobs growth throughout the country. Overall in 2016 there was a net increase of 3,679 jobs and total direct employment among LEO client companies stood at 34,634.

Enterprise Ireland client companies are a critical source of existing employment and job creation in every county in Ireland and are spread across a wide range of sectors. There are now over 201,000 people employed by EI supported companies across the country. The fact that over 130,000 (65%) of those 201,000 jobs are outside of Dublin is significant.

Enterprise Ireland’s new Strategy 2017 – 2020 will support more Irish companies to achieve greater scale, to be more competitive and expand into new export markets. The objective of the ‘Global Ambition’ strategy is to support enterprises across the economy, to grow into strong Irish international companies, developing world-leading products and services and exporting them all around the world.

There is a vast range of programmes and supports offered to companies across the country to drive this strategy. These include management capability, leadership and marketing/sales skills as well as promoting innovation and R&D.

IDA Ireland reported a second, consecutive record year in 2016. 199,877 people are now employed in IDA Ireland supported client companies, which is the highest level of employment in the Agency’s history.

Since 2015 IDA Ireland has been working towards targets set out in their strategy “Winning - Foreign Direct Investment 2015-2019” including the creation of 80,000 new jobs and 900 new investments, which would bring total FDI employment in Ireland to 209,000 by 2019. The Agency is also aiming to increase the level of investment by between 30% and 40% in each region.

The Government’s commitment to countrywide job creation is further illustrated by the Regional Action Plan for Jobs initiative. This has seen eight plans published throughout 2015 and 2016, which identified a range of actions aimed at supporting each region to achieve its economic potential and raise employment levels.

As part of this initiative, IDA Ireland is investing €150 million over five years in property solutions designed to allow it to create opportunities to win additional projects for all regions. This includes include the construction of nine new advance facilities around the country. This is a positive development for attracting FDI into regional locations.

These new regional initiatives are already producing results. The numbers in employment increased in all regions during 2016 with 70% of new jobs created outside Dublin. The fastest growing regions in terms of employment during 2016 were the Mid West (up 7.4%), the West (up 5.5%), and the South East (up 4.6%).

I am currently finalising plans for a Competitive Regional Funding Initiative of up to €60m to support collaborative approaches to grow and sustain indigenous enterprise and jobs across the regions. This will be administered by Enterprise Ireland.