Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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41. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the extent to which innovation and technology continues to play a prominent role in job creation in all regions throughout the country in respect of new locations and existing enterprises; if particular advantages or disadvantages have been identified in this regard; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43138/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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My Department recognises the key role that innovation has played in Ireland’s economic recovery to date. It contributes significantly to job creation, exports and investment and the competitiveness of the indigenous enterprise base. Innovation also contributes to embedding the foreign direct investment base in Ireland.

Enterprise Ireland, an agency of my Department, supports companies in regional and rural areas to start, innovate and remain competitive in international markets, now and into the future. The 5,000 manufacturing and internationally traded services companies that Enterprise Ireland works with are a critical source of existing employment and job creation in every county in Ireland.

In 2016, companies supported by Enterprise Ireland employed 201,108 people (173,868 FTE and 27,240 Other).

Within this, 19,244 new jobs were created resulting in a net gain of 9,117 jobs.

- 65 % of client employment is outside of Dublin.

- 42.2 % of client employment is outside the five counties which are home to the five urban centres (Dublin, Limerick, Galway, Waterford and Cork).

- 36 % of the net new jobs created in 2016 by Enterprise Ireland supported clients were outside of the five counties which are home to the five urban centres.

From interactions with clients, Enterprise Ireland is seeing companies that are born in rural locations, creating jobs in rural areas and innovating in rural areas to provide globally competitive products for international markets.

Innovation is key in ensuring our firms are competitive in international markets and is vital for companies to meet the challenges posed by Brexit. Enterprise Ireland’s role in Ireland’s research and innovation landscape is focused on empowering Irish companies, irrespective of location throughout the country, to create high-value, innovative and differentiated products for international markets, leading to revenue and jobs growth in Ireland. Enterprise Ireland has a range of offers focusing on supporting businesses of all sizes to develop and build their innovative capability and to incentivise increased investment in innovation. These offers are available to companies throughout the country.

In January 2017, Enterprise Ireland published its strategy for the period 2017-2020 ‘Building Scale, Expanding Reach’. The strategy was developed in the context of Brexit and focuses on supporting clients to both build their scale and expand their reach. Despite economic and market uncertainties, Enterprise Ireland’s strategic aims, working with clients are to:

- Assist clients to create 60,000 new jobs by 2020 and to sustain the existing record level of jobs

- Grow annual exports by €5bn to €26bn per annum

- Increase the level of spend in the Irish economy by €4bn to €27bn per annum by 2020.

- Ambition: Inspiring more companies to have global ambition.

The distribution of higher education institutions throughout the country provides companies with access to knowledge providers irrespective of location. At these locations, companies can access knowledge, skills and the physical infrastructure required to drive innovation.

To build innovation capacity at these locations, Enterprise Ireland has:

- Funded the established of campus incubators in every Higher Education Institution in partnership with the European Union under the Regional Innovation Strategies Measures. This programme seeks to (1) foster entrepreneurship and campus company activity; (2) help realise the commercial potential of

- Ireland’s research community; and (3) support balanced regional development.

- Built a network of 15 Gateways at Institutes of Technology to give companies access to innovation expertise required to find solutions to business challenges.

Funded Technology Centres as part of a joint initiative with IDA Ireland. Technology Centres are collaborative entities, established and led by industry, which undertake R&D of strategic interest to its member companies, in partnership with a Higher Education Institution.

Provide financial supports, such as Innovation Vouchers and Innovation Partnerships, to client companies throughout Ireland. Location is not a factor in decisions made by Enterprise Ireland in regard to R&D support.

Enterprise Ireland will continue to work with client companies to drive innovation as means to  increasing employment across the country.

My Department has developed its Innovation 2020 strategy for Research and Development, Science and Technology and its Enterprise 2025 policy side by side. A critical objective for my Department is delivering on the actions and commitments set out in Innovation 2020. It is clear that a strong interdependence exists between science, technology and innovation policy and enterprise policy.

The National Support System for Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for research and innovation, is coordinated by Enterprise Ireland. It has a budget of almost €75 billion and runs over the period 2014-2020. Horizon 2020 includes a programme tailored specifically to the needs of SMEs, namely the SME Instrument, which has €3 billion in funding available over the period 2014-2020. The SME Instrument helps high-potential SMEs to develop ground-breaking innovative ideas for products, services or processes that are ready to face global market competition.

Companies in Ireland (both foreign-owned and Irish-owned) that compete successfully for funding from Horizon 2020 will boost their innovative capability and competitiveness which in turn will deliver strong national economic impacts, including job creation.