Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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109. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment his plans for ensuring greater economic regional development, specifically in the mid-west region. [23115/24]

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Balanced economic regional development is a key focus for this Government and requires a whole-of-government approach. Activity supporting economic development around the country is driven by the local authorities, central Government Departments and a wide range of state agencies and offices.

My Department contributes to this objective through a range of activities as set out in the White Paper on Enterprise, including through the work of the enterprise agencies and Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs).

Enterprise Ireland’s strategy has set targets of creating 45,000 new jobs by 2024 and that over two-thirds of new jobs will be created outside Dublin. Enterprise Ireland made payments of €12.7 million to client companies in the Mid-West region in 2023, and an additional €3.8 million towards infrastructural investments in the Mid-West region. This investment has coincided with employment growth of 2.2% during 2023 for Enterprise Ireland supported companies, with 1,852 jobs created in 2023 in the region. Total employment among Enterprise Ireland’s 467 supported clients stood at 25,273 in the Mid-West in 2023.

The LEOs promote entrepreneurship within their locality and help in the creation of new sustainable jobs in innovative businesses that contribute to economic development within their regions. The LEOs based in the Mid-West region have provided €1.98 million in grant assistance to 808 small businesses in 2023, which has contributed to supporting 5,020 jobs in the region.

Turning to Foreign Direct Investment, the IDA has a target for half of all investments from 2021-2024 to be won in regional locations outside Dublin. IDA’s commitment to more balanced development in the Mid-West has seen consistent FDI performance in the region over the past five years with employment among IDA clients increasing by 20%.

Complementing the work of the enterprise agencies and LEOs are nine Regional Enterprise Plans (REPs), which focus on collaborative initiatives to develop the enterprise ecosystem in each region. Progress Reports on implementation, including for the Mid-West REP, were recently published and are available on my Department’s website.

My Department secured €145 million for the Smart Regions Enterprise Innovation Scheme, co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund, which will support enterprise development projects aligned to the REPs. Enterprise Ireland’s Mid-West Team based in Shannon is working with range of potential projects to ensure a pipeline of these projects.

As the Deputy will be aware, the Shannon Estuary Economic Taskforce was established in April 2022 to make recommendations to Government on the economic development potential of the Shannon Estuary region. The Taskforce Report was launched in Ardnacrusha, Co. Clare, on 8 July 2023 and includes recommendations relating to offshore wind energy, onshore renewable energy, security of energy supply and cost, transport, logistics and connectivity, and tourism. The Taskforce recommended that my Department coordinate the Government response to its action plan. The first implementation update was published on 21 December 2023 and the second implementation update is expected in the coming months.

In addition to the work of the enterprise agencies and LEOs, the White Paper on Enterprise notes the importance of clustering and proposes the establishment of a National Clustering Programme, with a target to fund five national cluster organisations by 2025. The Regional Technology Clustering Fund (RTCF) administered by Enterprise Ireland supports regional clusters across Ireland. In the Mid-West, the RTCF supports IDEAM, a digital engineering and advanced manufacturing cluster based in the Technological University of the Shannon.

Our Rural Future is the whole-of-government policy for sustainable rural development in Ireland. The policy was published in March 2021 and contains more than 170 commitments for delivery by government departments and their agencies. These measures support the economic, environmental, cultural and social development and wellbeing of rural communities.

As the Deputy can see, the Government is committed to balanced economic regional development and is pursuing this agenda across Departments and agencies.