Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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Balanced regional enterprise development is a key policy of mine and is reaffirmed in the Government’s 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 Regional Enterprise Plans are driven by regional stakeholders and focus on undertaking collaborative projects that help strengthen the regional enterprise ecosystem.

The North-East Regional Enterprise Plan is overseen at a regional level by a Steering Committee made up of stakeholders from counties Louth, Cavan and Monaghan. The North-East Steering Committee last met on 15 September 2023.

My Department oversees implementation of the Regional Enterprise Plans at the national level. Together with Minister Simon Coveney and Minister of State Dara Calleary, I attended the Regional Enterprise Plans National Oversight Group (NOG) meeting on 26 October 2023. Regional Enterprise Plan Chairs were in attendance, together with representatives from the enterprise agencies, the Head of the LEO network, the County and City Management Association and other organisations with a focus on regional enterprise development. The next meeting of the NOG will take place on 25 April.

The Deputy will be interested to know that the Mid-Term Progress Report on the North-East Regional Enterprise Plan which gives an update on all strategic objectives and associated actions in the Plan was published just this week on my Department’s website.

The first Strategic Objective of the North-East REP aims to develop a strong and coherent messaging proposition for the region highlighting its unique attributes for investment including talent, sectoral strengths and placemaking/quality of life. The actions under this objective include developing strategic partnerships across industry and supporting the retention of talent in the region through remote working opportunities.

To support projects aligned to the Regional Enterprise Plans, my Department has secured up to €145 million for the Smart Regions Enterprise Innovation Scheme, which is 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 of the country. This funding builds on the €126 million my Department has already approved since 2017 in regional enterprise funding. The North-East region has secured almost €22 million from that funding for thirteen enterprise projects.

The first call of €35 million under the Smart Regions Enterprise Innovation Scheme is open for applications on Enterprise Ireland’s website. There will be further calls under this fund in the coming years.

The enterprise agencies, Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, together with the Local Enterprise Offices, are also working to deliver balanced enterprise development.

68% of new jobs created in 2023 in companies supported by Enterprise Ireland were located outside Dublin. 6,744 jobs were supported by Enterprise Ireland client companies in Louth last year.

The IDA Ireland’s most recent results for 2023 show that of the 248 investments won, 132 went to regional locations, with county Louth home to 36 IDA Ireland client companies directly employing 4,485 people.

In addition, in 2023, the Louth Local Enterprise Office supported 212 client companies, creating 26 new jobs. The North-East region as a whole saw a 5% increase in jobs created, with 551 client companies supported, creating 168 new jobs.