Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 23 February 2023
77. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the steps he is taking to support existing levels of employment in regional towns; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2049/23]
View answerThanks to the Covid pandemic, there has been a realisation that the delivery of broadband to every home across Ireland has the potential to transform our economy, and no more so than in rural Ireland. If this is going to happen, though, then we need a new strategic approach to supporting our provincial towns around the country and encouraging that type of investment. What are we doing to achieve that?
I thank the Deputy for his question. I take the opportunity to wish him well, given that he has announced he is moving to a new phase in his life.
Not yet, Dara.
Hopefully not for another few years, but Deputy Naughten will be a loss to politics and the House. He and I share a commitment to balanced regional enterprise growth, which is a key objective of the Government and a key component of the recently published White Paper on Enterprise, to which the Minister referred.
Recognising the significant challenge that businesses continue to face, and to protect employment across the country, the Government has put in place significant measures to help businesses in the current economic climate. All of these will favour businesses in regional towns - the temporary reduction in VAT on gas and electricity, the extension of the temporary reduction in VAT on tourism and hospitality, and the reform of the temporary business energy support scheme, TBESS.
The Department's enterprise agencies are focused on regional development, including the development of our regional towns. In 2022, the IDA secured 127 out of 242 investments in the regions. In 2022, €13 billion was invested in the Irish economy by IDA client companies in the regions across payroll, materials and services. Much of that was spent in regional towns, including in the Deputy's county. Enterprise Ireland has targeted 45,000 new jobs by 2024 and we have expanded the role of the local enterprise office, LEO, network.
Through the regional enterprise programmes, €126 million is being invested in 79 regional projects in the coming years. In Sligo, for example, the programme is funding the creation of a new gaming academy in Strandhill and a new advanced manufacturing centre in the middle of Sligo town, both of which will add considerably to Sligo’s reputation and enhance its ability to attract investment. One of those projects is a town centre development.
In my supplemental reply, I will go through Government initiatives, such as the town centre first programme, from other Departments.
I thank the Minister of State for his response. As he is aware, Project Ireland 2040 refers to a hub and spoke strategy. One of the towns identified in that regard is Athlone, which is doing very well and has become, in effect, the silicon heartland of northern Europe, with more tech jobs per capita than anywhere else in our region. However, that is not spinning out to other towns such as Longford, Roscommon, Ballinasloe, Mullingar and Tullamore.
The Minister of State gave the example of Sligo. I will give the example of Ballinasloe, where there is under-utilised water, wastewater and utilities. There is an abundance of public service land but IDA Ireland will not secure that additional public land for expansion into the future. I have raised this issue with the Taoiseach on numerous occasions on the floor of the House. He is coming to Ballinasloe tomorrow to see the lands for himself and I expect him to make an announcement regarding future investment on that campus.
I cannot comment on the Taoiseach’s plans for Ballinasloe. I know the town well. I am certainly happy to work with the Deputy to secure issues. However, I point out that there are facilities and opportunities through the regional enterprise plans programme. It is a bottom-up approach and I would certainly like to work with the Deputy on how we can input not just for Ballinasloe but also for Roscommon. In particular, developing a cluster around Athlone, to which the Deputy just referred, is a key priority that has been identified by the Minister, Deputy Coveney, within the new enterprise plan. The clustering approach is the only way we will secure investment. It is also about securing long-term investment by leveraging the experience in existing towns and centres such as Athlone and expanding them out. I refer to the success of places such as Monksland, which has been transformed in the past ten to 15 years. We need to leverage that enterprise experience out to surrounding areas.
Although IDA Ireland is achieving its target of 50% of its jobs being outside Dublin, we all know the big difficulty is revealed if you take the likes of Cork and Galway, the latter of which is in my region and that of the Minister of State, out of those figures. The figures are very skewed outside of the major cities. The Minister of State mentioned the town of Roscommon, which has not experienced FDI. The urban and rural areas of the town are now both completely supplied with fibre broadband. In fact, there are two fibre networks in the town. The Minister of State referred to a bottom-up approach yet on two occasions the local community there has applied for a digital hub to capitalise on the investment that is being put in but it has been refused investment from the State. These towns need assistance and focused support and that needs to come from the job agencies such as Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland.
I accept that but equally I could point to the success of Castlerea, which is also in the Deputy’s constituency and where there has been the fantastic story of Harmac Medical Products along with the fantastic work under way in the food innovation hub and in the demesne, led by our colleague, Paschal Fitzmaurice. I want to work with towns and try to engender that kind of spirit. The Deputy was involved in the creation of the rural regeneration and development fund, RRDF. There is the urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, for bigger towns. The Ministers, Deputies Humphreys and Darragh O’Brien, are leading out on those. We have the town centre first project from within the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. It is funded to the tune of €500,000 per project to try to get initiatives going in towns right across the country. We absolutely have an opportunity from the national broadband plan to build on that but we cannot guarantee success for every town. That is why the Minister, Deputy Coveney, is leading out on the regional enterprise conferences, starting in Letterkenny, as was stated, and continuing right across the country to try to engender that sense of enterprise in every region, not just some of them.
