Written answers

Thursday, 18 October 2018

Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Economic Growth Initiatives

Photo of Bernard DurkanBernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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24. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the steps in hand or to be undertaken to ensure continued economic investment in jobs, enterprise and innovation here notwithstanding the serious impact of Brexit or other global developments; the extent to which new opportunities continue to be fostered in this context; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42740/18]

Photo of Heather HumphreysHeather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Since the first publication of the Action Plan for Jobs in 2012, Ireland's economy has performed stronger than we thought possible at that time. Unemployment has reduced from a high of almost 16% to 5.4% in September 2018, according to the latest monthly unemployment figures from the CSO.

In March of this year, my Department published Enterprise 2025 Renewed. This involved reviewing our enterprise policies to ensure that our policy priorities remain robust in today's uncertain environment. The review confirmed the fundamentals of our enterprise policy remain sound, and so, Enterprise 2025 Renewed reaffirms our policy focus on export-led growth, underpinned by innovation, talent and investments in place-making.

Nevertheless, the Review showed that we need to make changes to our policy emphasis, to refocus on building resilience and to accelerate the speed at which we implement change. In the face of global challenges, Enterprise 2025 Renewed places a greater emphasis on five main areas:

- supporting the development of Irish owned enterprises so that they are a driver of growth over the period to 2025;

- placing a spotlight on innovation, skills and on leveraging Ireland’s strengths in technologies - the fundamentals that underpin competitiveness and enhanced productivity;

- stimulating greater levels of clustering that takes advantage of the distinctive enterprise mix we have here in Ireland including foreign and Irish owned and optimises spillovers;

- developing Ireland’s relationships with new like-minded members within the EU, managing our reputation in the US, as well as more widely; and raising Ireland’s visibility in overseas markets where we are less well known; and

- realising the potential of all our regions.

The recent pace of economic growth in Ireland has given rise to certain constraints which we are all aware of. I recognise that there are vulnerabilities within our enterprise base, including concentrations in certain sectors and lower productivity performance in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) across the economy. I am aware that skills shortages could constrict growth and that our labour force participation levels for certain cohorts are often lower than other comparable countries. Looking to the longer term, Project Ireland 2040 projects an increase in population of around 1 million people by 2040 requiring 660,000 additional jobs to be created over that period.

Furthermore, I know that Ireland’s future economic prospects will be shaped by international developments including Brexit and other global developments. Moreover, technological change will continue to fundamentally alter the types of jobs we will have in the future as well as the types of businesses supporting those jobs.

While the Government have comprehensively developed strategies which address many of these key challenges, we must avoid complacency and prepare for an uncertain future building on the strengths and successes of the Action Plan for Jobs process and Enterprise 2025. We need to be innovative in our approach to effectively tackle long-standing structural issues, to capture new areas of opportunity and to position Ireland for sustainable growth.

Against this backdrop, in July, the Government agreed to an ambitious initiative to guide the next phase of Ireland's economic development - Future Jobs. The initiative will be developed jointly by my Department and the Department of the Taoiseach. It will harness the coordinated commitment across many Government Departments and agencies established through previous initiatives.

Future Jobs will emphasise building resilience through improving productivity especially among Irish SMEs; enhancing skills levels and increasing participation in the labour force; preparedness for, and exploitation of, anticipated transformational changes arising from technological developments and the transition to a low carbon and digital based economy. A National Summit will be held in November that will be an opportunity for stakeholders to engage with policy makers and contribute to the development of Future Jobs which will be finalised and published in early 2019.

Research Prioritisation, introduced by Government in 2012 and initially spanning the period to 2017, aligned the majority of competitively awarded public investment in research with 14 priority areas that presented particular market opportunities for Ireland and where there was a pre-existing, proven combination of enterprise relevance and research strength in Ireland.

Innovation 2020 contained a commitment to review these areas with a view to updating and revising them as appropriate taking into consideration developments since 2012. The “Research Priority Areas 2018 to 2023” were published earlier this year with revised themes and new opportunities. The revised priority areas will be of particular relevance in the context of the new €500 million Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund announced by the Government as part of the National Development Plan 2018-2027.

This Fund is additional to existing innovation programmes and is about exploiting research to deliver new technologies and new solutions. It is also about incentivising collaborations between companies and collaborations with the colleges and other public sector bodies to deploy this technology in Ireland. There is €180 million of Exchequer funding being allocated to the Fund between now and 2022. When we factor in industry co-funding, this is a sizeable fund and one which is very much needed at this point. We have an budgetary allocation of €20 million in 2019 to fund the initial projects.

I am confident that we have a strong basis from which to grow. Using my Department's Budget allocation for 2019 to prioritise funding in the three key areas of Brexit, regional growth and innovation, I am sure that our business community will be best placed to meet the opportunities and challenges ahead. While we cannot control what happens externally, we can ensure that Ireland's future prospects are strengthened by taking the right actions now across Government to ensure that: Ireland remains internationally competitive; that our enterprises deepen their resilience through investments in skills and innovation; and that we continue to create an environment that is supportive of business investment and growth.

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