David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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8. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the research his Department, or bodies under the aegis of his Department, have carried out into enterprise and employment in regional towns; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12213/14]

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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11. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the strategies and policies in place to encourage enterprise and employment in regional towns; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12212/14]

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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The questions relate to regional towns around the country such as Youghal, Midleton, Cobh and Fermoy in my area. They historically were the economic hubs of enterprise, business and employment but that has changed dramatically and they have become dormitory towns. Has the Department carried out research into the employment and enterprise provision and potential of these towns?

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 8 and 11 together.

My Department tracks the agency supported enterprises in regional towns and their hinterlands. Our agencies have regional offices who seek to promote the assets of the region and develop their enterprises. Forfás has conducted research on the regional strengths and weaknesses’ from an enterprise perspective. However, most of our policy tools are enterprise focused and sector focused rather than taking regional towns as their starting point.

In 2014, we are seeking to enhance local enterprise support by the roll-out of the local enterprise offices, LEOs. They will deliver a first-stop shop point of access and specific support to the development of regional towns. They also include the local enterprise support services of the local authorities and will publish a local enterprise plan.

The aim of Action Plan for Jobs is to support enterprises to create employment throughout the country and in all regions. Regions that support strong and dynamic enterprises are crucial to Ireland’s return to overall economic growth. The action plan contains a number of actions to strengthen enterprise development at the regional level. Action 177 mandates my Department and its agencies to develop a framework for a regional enterprise strategy to better integrate and develop new ways of working, further collaborations and enhance the efforts and activities of the enterprise agencies and the other regional stakeholders in building enterprise based on sustainable competitive advantage of the region. Regional towns as the drivers of regional economies will obviously be central to the development of these strategies to further enhance the activities of the agencies and the soon to be established LEO network across the regions.

With regard to research and data analysis, this work will draw among others on the Forfás suite of studies on the Regional Competitiveness Agenda, published in 2009, updated by the regional strategies of Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for his comprehensive reply. What are the timescales for these actions? Has he set deadlines for results? He acknowledged that these towns are the drivers of the regional and local economies. Has a list of these towns been compiled and an analysis carried out of what has happened in them? Business and enterprise has collapsed to such an extent in some of them that they have become dormitory towns. Does the Minister agree that people leave them in the morning to work elsewhere and do their shopping elsewhere, which means that even retail outlets in them are beginning to be impacted? It is important to know the timescales for the positive actions that have been outlined.

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The timelines are published but I do not have them with me. It is either the third or fourth quarter this year. This is the first time there has been an attempt to develop a strategy with a number of county LEOs. We will also have the IDA and Enterprise Ireland strategies and we will seek to have a genuine forum in which other stakeholders such as local authorities can engage with us on the development of that strategy. We collate the SWOT analyses for an IDA region and what are the strengths and weaknesses of the region and how we can build them out. That is one part of it but we also examine the enterprise infrastructure, including the network of enterprise centres, LEOs offices and incubators in regional institutes of education, and the assets of the region and seek to build them out.

We do not focus on towns per se; we focus on enterprises and the infrastructure and assets around them. However, as I said in reply to Deputy Tóibín, the LEOs have a broader remit now and they will examine mentoring and other entrepreneurship supports for domestic businesses as well as export-oriented businesses. It is region-focused rather than town-focused.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Is there a risk that some towns could be left out of the loop if the strategy is regionally based? Some regions, and some areas within a region, may have more potential and may be stronger than others. How big will the regions be? Will they comprise a single county or multiple counties? The Minister said towns are the drivers of regional economies. Will he narrow the focus to towns because many of them have enterprise centres, chambers of commerce and so on, which are anxious to work with and engage with State agencies, but they could lost in a big region? Will he examine this again?

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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This is our first iteration of this and we have to be realistic. We must build on what we know about, which is enterprise start-up, attracting foreign direct investment, mentoring and running enterprise centres. The question will be how we do a better job of driving enterprise growth in the region. Regions will be based on the traditional IDA model. We recognise towns and the LEOs will seek to build networks with chambers of commerce or other players. Local authorities are experimenting with 700 initiatives aimed at supporting enterprises. Much of the work will involve seeking to mainstream some of them and drawing best practice from some others. Cork has been exemplary in engaging in innovative initiatives as have Tipperary and other counties.

This is part of a learning process and I am not setting out that my Department and I can draw up a big strategy for every town in the country. I am not capable of doing that but I would like to draw up a meaningful enterprise strategy that towns, villages and stakeholders can engage with and around which we can build a genuine dialogue.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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There has been too much focus on attracting FDI rather than trying to support our indigenous sector. I propose three initiatives. First, will he focus on towns, as Deputy Stanton has suggested, and get the agencies to assist them to examine their assets and build an enterprise strategy based on that? it has been done successfully by Louth County council and that could be replicated throughout the country.

Second, will the Minister ensure the same incentives available to attract FDI are made available for our own people who want to create a job or develop a business?

Third, many businesses face problems with energy costs. A successful carbon loan scheme operates in Northern Ireland and Wales under which a company receives a loan of £1,000 for every 1.5 tonnes of carbon saved. Could the Minister examine these three initiatives to support local employment, towns and businesses?

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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I do not accept that there has been too much focus on FDI. We had to have an export-led recovery. The domestic economy has been on the floor for the past four years and this has not been easy to correct because of the State finances and finances of individuals and so on.

Our focus on Irish companies exporting abroad and attracting new investment continues to be absolutely vital. I agree with the Deputy that by putting the local enterprises offices into the local authorities, which has been criticised, it does give us an opportunity to engage differently with local communities. We hope that over time it will be exactly like that - seeing more bottom-up initiatives from local authorities engaging with stakeholders in their areas.

It is not true that the IDA gets more generous support. As we have been discussing, a lot of those go to Dublin and Cork where there is zero per cent regional aid available. It is a myth that the IDA receives a whole lot of supports. The truth is that we have supports for indigenous companies across the whole range, including start-up, innovation, technology support, management development, graduate placements and export supports. We have a big range of supports for export-oriented Irish companies, which is much wider than we offer elsewhere.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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One needs to get off the ground before one can start the courses.