Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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92. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the status of the development of his Department’s new Statement of Strategy to cover the period 2023-2025; the measures planned to ensure sustainable and balanced regional development in Ireland, particularly with regard to the northern and western region which has been classified by EU bodies as a region in transition and a lagging region; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22150/23]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I am currently finalising my Department's new Statement of Strategy for 2023-2025. This Strategy will guide the delivery of an ambitious programme of work over the coming years, with an aim to make Ireland the best place to succeed in business across all parts of our country, with vibrant enterprises, more high-quality employment, growing trade, fair workplaces and higher productivity.

Sustainable, balanced regional development continues to be a key policy of my Department and this Government, and the Statement of Strategy will draw on the ambitions and objectives of the White Paper on Enterprise, Regional Enterprise Plans, National Smart Specialisation Strategy, and will align with the objectives of the National Planning Framework, to ensure balanced economic development in all parts of the country, including regions that may be experiencing specific development challenges.

For the funding period 2021 to 2027, the European Commission has classified the Northern and Western Region (NWR) as a ‘transition region’. Given the NWR’s rural structure, along with its relatively peripheral and border location, particular challenges must be overcome. In that context, it is critical that the potential for economic growth in the NWR is realised to ensure an overall lift in its economic performance relative to the EU average, which, with sustainable job creation, would restore the region to the status of a ‘more developed region’.

Accordingly, Ireland’s National Smart Specialisation Strategy for Innovation 2022-2027 and programmes under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) are aimed at addressing these regional disparities. Last November, the European Commission adopted the two ERDF programmes for Ireland confirming a regional investment strategy of €853 million, of which €396 million is financed by the EU. The ERDF will drive the application of Smart Specialisation and has targeted funding at regional innovation ecosystem strengthening initiatives, including improving the research capacities of the technological universities, developing clustering, and creating smart hubs for entrepreneurial research and innovation.

Enterprise Ireland, working with my Department and the Managing Authorities, launched three innovation-focused ERDF based programme calls over the past few months with awards to be announced later this year. In addition, €145m of ERDF has been secured over the coming years to finance projects aligned with the nine Regional Enterprise Plans. The West and North-West Regional Enterprise Plans in particular play a central role in supporting the delivery of balanced regional enterprise development in both regions by identifying growth opportunities, recognising vulnerabilities, and in response, strengthening the regional enterprise ecosystem to enable job creation. The first call under this fund will be announced shortly.