Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Balanced regional enterprise development continues to be a key policy priority of mine and this Government.

In pursuit of this, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (DETE) launched nine new Regional Enterprise Plans in 2022.

A key feature and strength of the Regional Enterprise Plans is that they are developed using a ‘bottom-up’ approach, developed by regional stakeholders who are keenly aware of the growth opportunities and vulnerabilities in their region, and of the benefits of working collaboratively. Each Regional Enterprise Plan is overseen and monitored by a Steering Committee made up of regional stakeholders and chaired by a senior level private sector businessperson.

The South-East Regional Enterprise Plan covers Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford and Waterford and was launched in Wexford on the 24th of March last year. The Plan contains five strategic objectives (and related actions) to be delivered by end 2024.

They are:

- Start and grow - encouraging entrepreneurship and enhancing the region’s start up ecosystem

- Green growth - ensuring that the green economy becomes an engine for future job creation and economic growth in the region

- Smart specialisation and clustering - the principles of smart specialisation and clustering are critical for the region to create a resilient, inclusive, sustainable and competitive economy.

- Innovate - building on existing RD&I capacity to place innovation at the heart of the South-East economy.

- Place - developing a region that is attractive to both domestic and international visitors and communicating the benefits of living and working in the South-East.

The South-East Steering Committee is chaired by Patsy Carney. The Steering Committee members include representation from the Local Authorities, the Enterprise Agencies, LEOs, Regional Assemblies, Higher Education bodies and others, all of whom are focused on creating a dynamic enterprise ecosystem in the region.

Since publication and launch, the Working Groups have been meeting to drive implementation of the actions, with a manager having been appointed to the Life Sciences Cluster in particular.

Indeed, I am due to attend the next meeting of the Steering Committee next month at SETU in Waterford, when I look forward to hearing more on the progress being made in delivering the South-East Regional Enterprise Plan.

I can advise the Deputy that DETE is continuing to work with Enterprise Ireland to prepare the launch of the first call under the European Regional Development Fund which will drive implementation of the Regional Enterprise Plans. I am keen to get this funding out across the country as soon as possible. Due to the excellent work of the South-East Regional Steering Committee, I strongly believe that the region is well-placed to benefit from this funding.

Finally, the Deputy may be aware that Minister Coveney has recently announced that the Department intends to hold several conferences around the country which will focus on digital transformation and decarbonisation and will showcase the government and agency supports available to small and medium enterprises. The first of these ‘Building Better Business’ conferences will be held in the North-West on Friday, 3^rdMarch at the Letterkenny campus of the Atlantic Technological University (ATU) in Donegal. Conference dates for the rest of the country, including the South-East, will be announced in due course.