Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

64. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment for an update on progress in the south-east regional enterprise plan; the funding for the plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51223/23]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Balanced regional enterprise development continues to be a key policy for me and this Government and is reaffirmed in the White Paper on Enterprise.

My Department contributes to this agenda in several ways, including through the development, implementation and oversight of nine Regional Enterprise Plans.

The South-East Regional Enterprise Plan is overseen and monitored at a regional level by a Steering Committee made up of stakeholders from Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford.

There is a lot of activity in the region in support of the Plan.

Rosslare Europort and Waterford Port are progressing their ambitious plans to develop a €200m Offshore Renewable Energy Hub and a stakeholder group is forming to focus on the additional skills, regional supply chain, marketing, and industry requirements and opportunities arising from this.

Elsewhere, funding has been secured through the Regional Enterprise Innovation Scoping Scheme, or REISS, to advance a Financial Services Centre of Excellence in the South-East and a Project Manager has been appointed.

Funding was also secured through the REISS and the REDF/BEDF Addendum Fund to further advance the life sciences innovation, research and development eco-system in the South-East.

My Department oversees implementation of the Plans at the national level and I, together with Ministers of State Calleary and Richmond, attended the Regional Enterprise Plans National Oversight Group meeting on 26 October.

Regional Enterprise Plan Chairs were in attendance, together with representatives from the enterprise agencies, the County and City Management Association, the Head of the LEO network, and other organisations with a focus on regional enterprise development.

A topic for discussion at that meeting was the provision of funding to implement new enterprise projects aligned to the Regional Enterprise Plans.

As the Deputy will be aware, my Department has secured up to €145 million in funding to support projects aligned to those Plans. This builds on the €126 million my Department has already allocated in regional enterprise funding.

The first call of €35 million under the Smart Regions Enterprise Innovation Scheme, which is co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund, is now open on the Enterprise Ireland website and will close on 31 March 2024. I expect that there will be up to four calls under this fund over the coming years. I encourage innovative projects in the South-East to apply.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is aware that I recently announced that my Department has secured €145 million in funding for the Smart Regions Enterprise Innovation Scheme, co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund.

The overall objective of this scheme is to drive job creation and enterprise development in each region throughout Ireland as well as supporting projects aligned to the nine Regional Enterprise Plans. There is €35 million available under the first call call, which will support local infrastructure projects, innovative clusters and consortia, services to SMEs to drive innovative solutions and feasibility and priming grants for early-stage project development.

Enterprise Ireland, which administers the scheme on behalf of my Department, has detailed information on its website. In addition, Enterprise Ireland is holding a series of webinars on the content of the scheme, which will give prospective applicants more detailed information on each of the scheme's four streams. Over two hundred people registered for the first webinar held on 14 November. A further webinar was held on 21 November with the next webinar to be held on 28 November.

The first call is open until 31 March 2024 and there will be further calls in the coming years. As well as the full information available on its website, Enterprise Ireland's regional staff are available to talk potential applicants through the detail of the scheme.