Minister Mitchell O’Connor publishes first progress reports on Regional Action Plan for Jobs: South West
22nd December 2016
The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Ms Mary Mitchell O’Connor TD, has published the first progress report on the Regional Action Plans for Jobs: South West. The progress report was prepared by the Regional Implementation Committees established to oversee and monitor implementation of the measures contained in the Plan. The report outlines progress made on measures due for completion up to and including the first half of 2016, as well as progress made on measures that are ongoing during the period of the Action Plan.
According to the Minister, “A key objective of the Regional Plan initiative is to have a further 10 to 15 per cent at work in each region by 2020, with the aim of having the unemployment rate of each region within one per cent of the national average. While at an early stage, the progress reports reflect the good work made to date in the implementation of all 8 Regional APJs and creating a supportive environment for jobs growth in the regions.”
“The Plans have been embraced within the regions and completion rates for actions within the first Progress Reports are in excess of 90% for each region. Collaboration between the private and the public sector has been a core element in each plan’s development, and will be central to each plan’s delivery. Based on current data, all regions are on target to meet or exceed the job targets to be delivered by 2020.”
Highlights of the report include:
- In December 2015, Enterprise Ireland launched a Competitive Feasibility Fund of €200k for Kerry and Mid West Start-ups (action 138)
- The new 10,000 square foot Ludgate Digital Hub building opened this year, providing up to 75 desks, training and meeting room space, and a state of the art telepresence suite. The building has 1000MB of connectivity due to a joint venture between Vodafone and ESB (action 84)
- In January 2016, the successful bidder to host the national Health Innovation Hub was announced as a consortium of UCC, CIT, NUIG, and TCD. The aim is to drive collaboration between the health service and enterprise leading to development of new technologies, products and services (action 126)
- The South-West Regional Skills Forum has been established with representation from education and training providers, statutory agencies, and business organisations. A Forum manager has been appointed to design and oversee the implementation of annual operational plans. (action 202)
- Planning Permission was granted by Kerry County Council in February 2016 for an IDA Advance Technology Building in Tralee. Building commenced in August 2016 with expected completion May 2017 (action 187)
- A successful EI/IDA Trade Mission was held in the South West in October 2015, to help Irish companies win more business from foreign owned multinationals in Ireland. Networking events also took place in the region, giving Irish companies the opportunity to engage directly with procurement teams from multinational companies across a wide range of sectors (action 73)
- Kerry County Council has secured joint funding of €91,500 from CEDRA under the Agri-Tourism initiative, to target this sector and optimise linkages between tourism and food. Partners include Udarás na Gaeltachta, Kerry County Council, CEDRA and Taste Kerry (action 14)
- Cork County Council & Cork City Council jointly commissioned the development of the first ever five year Tourism Strategy for Cork, to develop a vision and action plan which would give cohesive direction to the future growth of tourism in the county. (action 38)
- Tyndall has secured €35m in Horizon2020 funding for Ireland with €10m of this to Irish Industry (action 180)
- In 2015 the South West LEOs approved €2.14m to 131 projects for priming, feasibility and business expansion grants, hosted 467 participants on 32 Start Your Own Business (SYOB) courses, and saw gross job gains of 1021 among client companies over the year (action 132)
- Enterprise Ireland has approved funding of a revised New Frontiers programme for 2016-2020, with €2m investment approved for the South West to fund New Frontiers in ITT and CIT for the next 5 years (action 144)
The Minister added, “The success of the Regional Action Plans for Jobs is crucial to the Government in meeting the ambition to create an additional 200,000 jobs, 135,000 of which are outside the Dublin region, by 2020. Overall, Employment in the State has been growing continuously for 16 quarters now and over the past year employment has grown in all regions, with 72% of all jobs created outside Dublin.”
According to the Minister, employment growth in the year to date was the strongest in the South West (up 4.4%).
The Minister said: “External shocks, such as Brexit, have the potential to impact on regional job delivery in the future. However, the Plans are flexible and dynamic and can be adapted to address Brexit challenges and opportunities arising within the regions. In this context, Brexit remains a standing item on the agenda for the meetings of all Regional APJ Implementation Committees.”
The Minister concluded, “To support the regional jobs agenda, I have ensured that additional funds will be made available through the enterprise development agencies on a rolling basis out to 2020. Last June, I announced an initial allocation of €5m in competitive funding for 48 local and regional initiatives under two of these calls. All regions benefited under this initiative.
"In addition, as part of this process, my Department and Enterprise Ireland are currently finalising plans for a €40m regional funding initiative in respect of a large scale fund aimed at supporting significant innovative and collaborative projects and activities, and a further €5m competitive regional fund initiative to support the development of community-based enterprises and networks that have the potential to grow and sustain jobs in their area.
"An additional €150m is being made available to the IDA to support its Regional Property Programme and drive job creation in the multinational sector.”
Related:
Progress Report (H1 2016) - Action Plan for Jobs: South West (1636 KB)
