Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

89. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the degree to which she continues to engage with the major employers throughout the country with a view to ensuring ongoing investment and job creation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22986/17]

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

The goal of this Government is to support the creation of an additional 200,000 jobs by 2020 with 135,000 jobs outside Dublin. This is a whole of Government effort and is delivered through our integrated Action Plan for Jobs.

Since the first Action Plan for Jobs was launched in early 2012, almost 206,000 more people are at work. Over 66,000 jobs were created during 2016. Employment growth is spread across all regions and all sectors of the economy.

In February, we published the Action Plan for Jobs 2017 which sets out the whole of Government response to secure employment and retain jobs in the face of global uncertainty by strengthening the resilience and agility of our enterprise base.

In developing the 2017 Plan, I met a wide range of stakeholders including a broad selection of Enterprise Ireland and IDA client companies and the employer representative bodies. I also expanded the Industry Partners Forum to include a wider sectoral and regional representation. These meetings with enterprise informed the priorities that I and my Ministerial colleagues are progressing under the 2017 Plan to support further job creation and deliver sustainable enterprise growth in the short to medium term.

In particular, the 2017 Plan sets out a range of actions to address the immediate and medium term challenges posed by Brexit and the volatility in the global trading and investment environment. These include measures to drive innovation, grow and scale Irish businesses, diversify our exports, promote entrepreneurship, deliver the skills needs of our growing economy, improve our competitiveness and ensure finance is available at competitive cost to support and underpin growth.

Accelerating the pace of progress in each region to maximise their job potential has been a  top priority for the Action Plan for Jobs. In 2015, we launched the Regional Action Plans for Jobs initiative to help each region achieve its economic potential and increase employment. Each Regional Action Plan has an Implementation Committee that brings together enterprise, third level and other stakeholders from within each region, and senior officials from my Department and I have met with the Committees at various stages over the last year.  I am also engaged in a range of stakeholder and industry consultations as part of my work on Brexit preparedness.

I am keen that the Department continues to engage in in-depth and frequent dialogue with our stakeholders on a range of policy areas which fall within our remit. With this in mind, I have established a Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Enterprise Forum on Brexit and global challenges. This will provide a vehicle for discussion of enterprise, trade and investment policy implications arising from wider global challenges, with a specific focus on Brexit in the first instance.

In addition to this more structured engagement with enterprise, I am talking to employers across the country every week about the issues of importance to them to grow their businesses and create jobs.