Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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103. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the steps he is taking to support job creation in regional towns; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60289/21]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Regional enterprise development and sustainable local job creation is a key policy priority of mine and this Government.

Overseen by my Department, nine new Regional Enterprise Plans to 2024 are being developed by regional stakeholders which will identify growth opportunities, recognise vulnerabilities, and enable job creation across the regions.

These Plans are complementary to and build on the core activities of the IDA, Enterprise Ireland, the LEOs and the wider range of State Bodies involved in regional enterprise development. Each Plan is overseen by a Regional Steering Committee chaired by a senior level businessperson.

I expect to publish the new Regional Enterprise Plans in early 2022.

The Government, through Enterprise Ireland, has provided funding to assist enterprise development and regional jobs growth across all regions. For example, my Department’s Regional Enterprise Development Fund, Border Enterprise Development Fund, and recent Regional Enterprise Transition Scheme has approved over €126 million across 79 enterprise strengthening projects in every region over a series of competitive calls since 2017. These Funds enable significant collaborative and innovative regional projects to provide a timely impetus to job creation in regional locations.

Almost two thirds of new jobs created by Enterprise Ireland client companies in 2020 were in regions outside of Dublin. IDA will target half of all investments (400) from 2021- 2024 to regional locations and maintain the same high level of investment as targeted in IDA’s previous strategy for each region of the country. IDA client companies directly employed almost 145,000 people outside of Dublin in 2020. Combined with indirect employment of 116,000, an estimated 260,000 jobs in the regions were supported by FDI in 2020. The Local Enterprise Offices continue to provide a first stop shop to individuals who want to start or grow their micro enterprise in every county. There were 35,236 people employed in over 7,500 LEO client companies nationally in 2020.

The Government is also committed to the development of a ‘Town Centre First’ policy focused on regeneration of rural towns and villages. My Department’s Retail Forum developed a Framework for Town Centre Renewal which is a useful tool to assist Town Teams in how to improve footfall and customer experience in their towns. Through the Government’s National Planning Framework, the main cities are to develop as viable alternatives to Dublin with funding channelled through Project Ireland 2040.