Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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199. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development his plans to further support enterprise and enhance employment across rural Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8969/18]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Action Plan for Rural Development includes a range of measures which will support enterprise growth and job creation in rural areas. These measures will be delivered across a range of Government Departments, State agencies and other organisations over the period to 2020.

The relevant measures in the Action Plan are aimed at:

- growing and attracting enterprises and jobs,

- supporting growth in specific sectors such as Agri-food, Tourism and Renewable Energy,

- ensuring rural communities have the necessary skills to meet the needs of the labour market, and

- supporting job seekers in rural areas.

The Government has set a target of supporting the delivery of 135,000 extra jobs outside of Dublin by 2020.

The latest labour market data published by the Central Statistics Office, for Quarter 3 2017, show that employment increased in almost all regions of the country year-on-year. All regions saw increases in IDA employment in 2017, with over 50% of the 19,851 new jobs created last year being located outside of Dublin. Two-thirds (65%) of the 19,332 new jobs created by Enterprise Ireland companies in 2017 were outside of Dublin.

My own Department also contributes to job creation in rural areas through programmes such the Town and Village Renewal Scheme, the Rural Recreation Scheme and LEADER. LEADER is a multi-annual programme which has a budget of €250 million over the period to 2020 and has a job creation target of 3,100 over the lifetime of the programme.