Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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474. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation her plans to maximise the potential and usage of enterprise centres in attracting employment opportunities to rural areas and also helping to reduce travel for the workforce; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9250/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department’s Regional Enterprise Plans aim is to identify growth potential and new opportunities and strengthen the regional enterprise ecosystem while driving sustainable and quality job creation in the regions. 

Shaped from the ‘bottom-up’ by regional stakeholders, and overseen by my Department, the Plans complement national level policies and programmes emanating from the ‘top-down’ and, there is strong alignment with Ireland’s national enterprise policy, Enterprise 2025 Renewed and the Future Jobs Ireland initiative.  The Regional Enterprise Development Fund complements and enables the realisation of key initiatives emerging through the current Regional Enterprise Plans and other bottom-up enterprise development projects.  Through the REDF a number of enterprise centres and hub projects have been approved funding which should allow them to develop throughout the duration of their project into sustainable enterprise centres and hubs in their own right.

Driving balanced regional development is a core goal of Enterprise Ireland. Enterprise Ireland’s regional strategy, Powering the Regions has a vision to support all regions:

- grow optimally, based on their innate and unique strengths and capabilities;

- sustain and create regional jobs; and

- maximise the contribution of regions to economic growth and national prosperity.

Supporting enterprise centres is a key element of this strategy.

Enterprise Ireland has funded the establishment of enterprise centres throughout the country under several schemes, including under the Regional Enterprise Development Fund, the Community Enterprise Centre Schemes and the Community Enterprise Initiative Scheme. This support has resulted in a €150 million investment by Enterprise Ireland in all regions throughout the country. In addition, the agency is currently reviewing applications for funding under the €15 million Border Enterprise Development Fund to further support activity in this area.

Enterprise Ireland funded centres are located in areas of both sectoral opportunity and economic challenge. These centres provide:

- affordable physical workspace for companies;

- training and soft supports to tenant companies and companies in their regional area.

- physical space for future of work initiatives, such as, remote working.

As such, these facilities are key infrastructures in the ecosystem for supporting entrepreneurship and start-ups. 

A central objective of Powering the Regions is the Worksmart Challenge. This challenge has the aim to support 10,000 co-working and incubation spaces regional. This initiative will assist enterprise centres in attracting employment opportunities to rural areas and also help to reduce travel for the workforce. The breakdown of this target by region is presented as follows.

With cities becoming increasingly crowded leading to scarce accommodation and increased commutes, remote work is an intervention with the potential to lessen accommodation pressures and support the transition to a greener economy. Remote work also has the potential to stimulate regional growth and to widen the talent pool in Ireland.

This is reflected in the Remote Work in Ireland report, which my Department published in December 2019. The objective of this research was to understand the prevalence and types of remote working arrangements within the Irish workforce, the attitudes towards such arrangements, and the influencing factors for both employers and employees partaking in remote working.

This research was informed by a large volume of desk research; engagement with key stakeholders; the outputs arising from a ministerial Remote Working Consultation Forum which was held in the Cavan Digital Hub in July 2019; and the dissemination of an online Remote Work Employee Survey.

The Remote Work Employee Survey reflected a significant demand for remote working options amongst existing employees. Of respondents who did not work remotely, 82.7% indicated that they would like to. A reduced commute was identified as a key motivator for those who wanted to work remotely, accounting for 39.9% of responses. This was most common amongst those living in the Mid-East (63.2%), West (43.3%) and Midlands (43.1%).

The report identified three key areas to be addressed to ensure that Ireland could reap the benefits of remote working:

- Data: The report found that there was a lack of current data available on employees, employers and the hub infrastructure. It was suggested that to aid informed policy in the area that more data should be collected.

- Collaboration: The report found that whilst some collaboration had taken place between bodies working on the remote work agenda that this could be strengthened. It was suggested that an Interdepartmental Group comprising of relevant departments and state agencies should be formed to align national policies and strategies.

- Guidance: The report found that there was a lack of an official framework on remote working and that employers were not always aware of the options available to support them. The report recognised that this presented a barrier to the increased adoption of remote working solutions. It identified the need for guidance for employers in the following five areas:

- Equality

- Health and Safety

- Employment Conditions and the Right to Disconnect

- Data Protection

- Training

To build on this work, my Department has committed to the establishment of an Interdepartmental Group comprising of all relevant Departments and Agencies to align approaches and develop clear guidance on remote work for employers and employees. This Group has now been formed and will be steering the development of guidance on this topic.

The development of guidance will take into account the main findings of the Remote Work in Ireland report as well as engaging in wide consultation with key social partners and stakeholders. This research will seek to identify any gaps and inconsistencies in the current guidance on remote working available and identify any news areas where guidance may be required. This work expected to be completed by the end of 2020.

Regional development is a key priority of mine and I am focused on maintaining existing jobs while also increasing the level of employment and investment in rural areas. Innovation is a critical element of regional economic sustainability and in order to grow, regional firms must be enabled to achieve sales outside their region.