Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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177. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the extent to which he and his Department continue to ensure an even spread of job creation investment throughout the country, with a view to ensuring the availability of an increasing number of job opportunities in those areas previously not experiencing this, with consequent benefits in respect of road transport, traffic congestion and journeys to work; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23501/24]

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Regional enterprise development and sustainable local job creation is a policy priority for me and this Government.

The Government’s efforts to create sustainable enterprise in the regions is working, as can be seen by the latest Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and Local Enterprise Office figures.

Enterprise Ireland’s strategy fully aligns with Government's ambition to bring job opportunities and growth to all parts of Ireland increasing total employment to a record high of 2.5 million by 2024 with an ambitious target of creating 45,000 jobs over the next three years and increasing exports by Enterprise Ireland client companies to €30 billion.

Irish export-focused companies are continuing to create quality employment across Ireland, despite a challenging business environment. Employment in companies supported by Enterprise Ireland is now at its highest ever level at over 225,000 people, with over two thirds of the new jobs outside the Dublin region. Eight out of nine regions recorded net jobs growth, with the West region (+5%), the North-East region (+5%) and the North-West region (+4%) performing particularly strongly.

The IDA Ireland figures at the end of 2023 showed there were 132 investments secured across regional locations during 2023, representing 54% of the overall figure. The total number of regional jobs now stands at 163,471.

2023 represented the ninth year of consecutive growth for the Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) with 6,640 new jobs created by LEO clients in 2023. The LEOs now support over 7,100 companies financially within their portfolio with 38,726 associated jobs. The LEOs received €9 million additional funding in budget 2024 which has contributed to providing additional capacity for grant approval, training and development programmes and is allowing the LEOs to extend financial supports to businesses with up to 50 employees, who have ambition to begin exporting.

The LEO Policy Statement, which I am launching at the National Enterprise Awards this evening, 23 May, calls out the central role that the LEOs play for small businesses across every community in Ireland and sets out how the LEO network can help small businesses to deal with new challenges – going digital, reducing their carbon footprint, finding new markets, and innovating now and into the future.

The Town Centre First (TCF) Policy is a major cross-government policy that aims to tackle vacancy, combat dereliction and breathe new life into our town centres. It advocates for a holistic, place-based approach to sustainable rural development. Irish towns are facing significant challenges and opportunities that require a coordinated and comprehensive response. TCF recognises that every town is unique and the policy will facilitate the response by towns of all sizes across the country so that their centres can function as the sustainable and vibrant heart of the communities they serve, in ways that are adaptable and appropriate to 21st century needs. It contains 33 actions which will give towns the tools and resources they need to become more viable and attractive places in which to live, work, socialise and run a business. This will focus on charting the future direction of their towns, address issues of vacancy and dereliction and add vibrancy to the town centre.

The increase in home-working during and after the COVID-19 pandemic brought remote working to the forefront of working life, with remote and hybrid working from homes and hubs having since become an established reality for many, allowing people to live and work in their local regions in ways not previously possible. To facilitate this shift, the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023 was enacted on 4 April 2023. On 6 March 2024, Part 3 of the Act was commenced, which provides all employees with the right to request remote working arrangements. Along with this legislation, the Government has implemented all 15 actions outlined in the National Remote Work Strategy which aims to ensure that remote working becomes an established part of working life in Ireland in a way which maximises its economic, social and environmental benefits.

This increase in remote working, along with greater numbers of people working in and from their local towns and villages, will also contribute to an overall reduction in road congestion. It will thereby help us to reach our climate goals and will reduce commuting times to an individual’s place of work for those commuting.

Overseen by my Department, the Regional Enterprise Plans have been developed by regional stakeholders and identify growth opportunities, recognise vulnerabilities, and enable job creation across the regions.

The Government, through Enterprise Ireland, has provided funding to assist enterprise development and regional jobs growth across all regions. For example, my Department’s Regional Enterprise Development Fund, Border Enterprise Development Fund, and Regional Enterprise Transition Scheme has approved over €126 million across 79 enterprise strengthening projects in every region over a series of competitive calls since 2017. These funds enable significant collaborative and innovative regional projects to provide a timely impetus to job creation in regional locations.? As the Deputy will be aware, my Department has secured up to €145 million for the Smart Regions Enterprise Innovation Scheme to support projects aligned to the REPs.

The first call of €35 million under the new scheme, which is co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund, is open on the Enterprise Ireland website. I hope to announce successful projects under this first call in the coming months. I expect that there will be up to four calls under this fund over the coming years which will provide multi-annual funding for the Regional Enterprise Plans.