Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael)
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62. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the progress that has been made in the midlands region under the regional action plan for jobs; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16722/18]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Since becoming Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, I have made jobs and enterprise in the regions my top priority.

The Regional Action Plan for Jobs initiative is a central pillar of the Government’s ambition to create 200,000 new jobs by 2020, 135,000 of which are outside of Dublin. A key objective of each of the 8 regional plans is to have a further 10 to 15 per cent at work in each region by 2020, with the unemployment rate of each region not more than one percentage point greater than the national average.

The Midlands Action Plan for Jobs has been a key policy response for supporting employment growth in the Midlands, with public and private stakeholders currently engaged in driving the range of innovative and practical actions set out in the Plan. 

The Midlands Action Plan for Jobs has been embraced within the region and the efforts by stakeholders and businesses in the region are paying off: 9,500 more people are in employment in the Midlands from Q1 2015 (baseline year) to Q2 2017, representing significant progress towards the 14,000 target for 2020 as set out in the plan. However, at Q4 2017, the unemployment rate in the Midlands was 7.7%; which is still too high when compared with the State rate of 6.1%. We will maintain a focus on the Midlands to ensure that the employment environment continues to improve.

In 2017, both Enterprise Ireland and IDA reported job increases in the Midlands of 6% and 1% respectively. Through partnership between Enterprise Ireland and the Local Authorities, the Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) have 819 client companies in the Midlands employing 4,214 people; and last year those companies added 387 new employees in total.

To support the ambition, goals, and implementation of the Regional Action Plans for Jobs, last May my Department launched the €60m Regional Enterprise Development Fund. This competitive Fund is being rolled out by Enterprise Ireland over the next 4 years to support collaborative and innovative projects that can sustain and add to employment at a national, regional and county level. In December last year I announced €30.5 million under the first call under the Fund, with 21 projects from all over the country receiving funding.

One project in the Midlands, Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR) CLG, was approved funding under Stream One of the first funding call, which supports major regional, multi-regional or national sectoral initiatives with grants of €2 million up to €5 million per project. The award  of funding to the IMR in Mullingar will develop a significant and important applied research and development capability in the areas of Collaborative Robotics and Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, in partnership with manufacturing industries in the Midlands and elsewhere.

I launched the second call under the REDF on Monday 16th April, which will allocate the remainder of the €60 million, and I hope to see more successful projects coming through from the Midlands region.

Building on the progress and momentum of collaboration achieved to date through the Regional Action Plans is my priority. On Monday last I also met with the Chairs of the Regional APJ committees and other regional stakeholders, and together we have started a process to refresh and refocus all Regional Plans to ensure their relevance and impact out to 2020. I look forward to working further with the regional stakeholders in the Midlands to ensure we deliver to the employment targets for 2020 set out under the Regional Plans.