Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein)
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636. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of jobs created by Enterprise Ireland in County Laois in 2017. [1475/18]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department, through its agency Enterprise Ireland, is committed to supporting Irish businesses to grow, innovate and perform strongly in global markets.

Earlier this month Enterprise Ireland presented its End of Year Statement. This showed strong performance by the agency, particularly in the area of job growth. Especially notable was the fact that all counties experienced net growth. Laois in particular saw a net employment increase of 8%, which is higher than the national average of 5%. 168 jobs were created by Enterprise Ireland in Laois throughout the course of 2017, giving a net gain figure of 109 when job losses are considered. This takes the number of Enterprise Ireland supported jobs in the county to 1,473.

Enterprise Ireland recognises the importance of strengthening employment throughout the country. Its Regional Enterprise Development Fund (REDF) has had one call to date, and is focused on supporting major new collaborative and innovative initiatives that have the potential to make a significant impact on enterprise development in the regions, sustain and increase employment at a national, regional and county level.

In December I announced the 21 successful companies under the REDF that were granted a combined €30.5 million. One of the projects granted funding is based in Laois. Call two of this fund will be announced in March, and I am confident that we will see a similar level of engagement throughout the country.

2017 was a good year for regional job growth in Ireland, with 65% of jobs created by Enterprise Ireland being located outside Dublin. It is important, however, not to become complacent and it is with this in mind that Enterprise Ireland will continue to implement its wider strategy contained in its Build Scale, Expand Reach 2017-2020 report, which includes aims such as:

- Assisting clients to create 60,000 new jobs by 2020 while sustaining the existing record level of jobs;

- Growing the annual exports of client companies by €5bn to €26bn per annum;

- Increasing the level of spend made by client companies in the Irish economy by €4bn to €27bn per annum by 2020; and

- Inspiring more Irish owned companies to have global ambition.