Joint Oireachtas Committee
on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement
26th November 2015
Opening Statement by
Mr. William Parnell,
Principal Officer
Department of Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation
Introduction
The education and training system is critical to support enterprise growth and innovation. Providing young people with the education, training and skills that are relevant to the changing needs of the labour market is crucial, both to their employability and to the development of the economy as a whole.
Within the Department of Jobs, we work closely with our colleagues in the Department of Education & Skills, as well as in the Department of Social Protection, on matters relating to education and training, skills development, and other labour market issues.
The Department, in conjunction with the Skills and Labour Market Research Unit in SOLAS, provides the Secretariat to the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs. This Group reports jointly to the Minister for Education & Skills and the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation on the existing and emerging skills needs of the economy.
The overarching role of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation is to champion the enterprise agenda across Government and to promote and implement policies which support enterprise growth and job creation. The Department funds the activities of Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, and the Local Enterprise Offices. It also co-funds InterTradeIreland with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment in Northern Ireland.
Action Plan for Jobs
The Department is responsible for co-ordinating and publishing the annual Action Plan for Jobs, which is the Government’s key policy instrument to support job creation. The Action Plan for Jobs process has seen the delivery of over 1,000 individual actions since the first Plan was published in 2012. The Action Plans reflect many of the measures which have been introduced in the last number of years to reform the education and training system, and to address the high level of Youth unemployment - including through the Youth Guarantee, and programmes such as Springboard, MOMENTUM, JobBridge, and the ICT Skills Action Plan.
In our consultations with stakeholders in preparing the 2016 Action Plan for Jobs, we are once again hearing of the importance of the skills agenda to employers. As we emerge from the recession and see the economy begin to recover, it is clear that a key issue for employers is finding the right skills to meet their needs as they grow their businesses.
The “War for Talent” is very real, both for Irish companies and multi-national corporations based here, and the 42,000 young people who are unemployed have a key role to play in meeting the emerging skills requirements of the enterprise sector. It is important that we tap into this reservoir of talent, from both an economic perspective and a societal perspective. Ireland’s competitive advantage in international markets will increasingly be driven by the availability of world class skills at all levels.
A key objective of the Action Plan for Jobs process when it commenced in 2012 was to support the creation of 100,000 new jobs in the economy by 2016. This target has been exceeded, but tackling youth unemployment remains a challenge, and one which is shared by many other EU Member States. In spite of economic recovery across most of the EU, the Youth Unemployment Rate still exceeds 20% in many countries. In Ireland, the Unemployment Rate for young people fell from a peak of over 30% in early 2012, to 20.7% in the third Quarter of 2015. However, this is still more than double the national average Unemployment Rate of 8.9%, so our efforts must continue to support young people who are unemployed.
Pathways to Work
The Action Plan for Jobs is complemented by the Government’s Pathways to Work strategy which seeks to ensure that as many as possible of the jobs being created as the economy recovers are taken up by people on the Live Register. Pathways to Work is co-ordinated by the Department of Social Protection and focuses on actions to engage with, and support, the long term unemployed and young jobseekers on the Live Register. Within the Pathways Strategy, the Youth Guarantee sets a medium-term objective of ensuring that young people receive an offer of employment, education or training within four months of becoming unemployed.
Entrepreneurship
Within my own Department, Minister Bruton has placed a strong emphasis on supporting entrepreneurship, including young entrepreneurs. A key initiative in this regard is Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur competition which was introduced last year. This initiative is run by the Local Enterprise Offices and builds from county-level competitions, to regional and national finals. The competition has a total fund of €2 million and the overall national winners can receive a total of up to €70,000 investment in their businesses.
This year, the competition attracted 1,400 applicants between the ages of 18 and 30 (40% increase on last year), and 24 young entrepreneurs have reached the national finals which take place in the coming weeks.
InterTradeIreland
Building on the entrepreneurship theme, I would like to mention briefly some important areas of North-South cooperation in supporting enterprise development. As the Committee will be aware, InterTradeIreland is one of the six North/South Implementation Bodies established under the Good Friday Agreement. The Body runs a range of initiatives and programmes for SMEs on both sides of the Border to help companies develop their capacity and drive competitiveness. It is co-funded by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment in Northern Ireland. Since its establishment, 25,000 SMEs have benefited from InterTradeIreland’s cross-border information; 6,000 companies have taken part in all-island programmes; and 3,000new jobs have been created through the Body’s support.
InterTradeIreland cooperates with other enterprise development bodies in both Ireland and Northern Ireland, such as Enterprise Ireland, Invest Northern Ireland and the Local Enterprise Offices, to ensure synergies and avoid duplication. It will play a role in delivering its services throughout the regions of Ireland under the Government’s new suite of regional Action Plans for Jobs.
Enterprise Ireland
Enterprise Ireland, the agency responsible for supporting the growth of indigenous enterprises, has forged extensive links with various agencies and bodies in Northern Ireland. Its work has focused on liaison with, and participation in, cross border bodies such as the Ireland Fund, the International Fund for Ireland, the Special EU Programmes Body, as well as Local Authority-led cross border networks.
Enterprise Ireland co-operates closely with InvestNI. In November 2006, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between these agencies to enable clients of both agencies to access one another’s market services, trade missions and seminars. Recognising the benefits of pooling resources to support companies in overseas markets, the services of Enterprise Ireland and InvestNI overseas offices are available to client companies across the island.
Both Enterprise Ireland and InvestNI run innovation voucher programmes which are designed to assist small firms to access innovative solutions available in the higher education sector. In May 2008, an all-island Innovation Voucher initiative was jointly launched by Enterprise Ireland and Invest NI in Belfast. Through this initiative, small Irish enterprises in the Republic can access a further 10 knowledge providers in the North, and similarly, small enterprises based in Northern Ireland can use their vouchers to access expertise in research institutions based in the Republic of Ireland.
Since 2008, companies from the Republic of Ireland have completed 123 projects with Northern Ireland providers, and Northern Ireland companies have completed 57 projects with knowledge providers in the Republic. The Agencies are continually engaged in close cooperation on the development of this cross-border initiative and normally meet twice a year.
Enterprise Ireland continues to work with InvestNI when recruiting participants on its Leadership4Growth programme. 5 CEOs from Northern Ireland participated on this programme over the period 2010-2013 and there are 5 InvestNI clients participating on the current Leadership4Growth Programme. There are also 3 InvestNI clients participating on the current International Selling Programme.
Other areas of cross-Border collaboration for Enterprise Ireland include the Halo Business Angels Network which is a joint initiative of Enterprise Ireland and InterTradeIreland, which is tasked with the development of business angel syndicates across Ireland.
Ongoing dialogue is taking place between Enterprise Ireland’s Public procurement department and various entities involved in public procurement in Northern Ireland. These include the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, The Technology Strategy Board and InvestNI. Enterprise Ireland also works with InterTradeIreland on the procurement agenda.
In relation to access to EU research funding, cooperative links continue between the National Support Structure for Horizon 2020 in Enterprise Ireland, and Northern Ireland counterparts InvestNI and InterTradeIreland, to facilitate more targeted cooperation on an all-Ireland basis.
INTERREG
Finally, it is also worth mentioning the cross-Border INTERREG IVA programme which ran from 2008-2014. One element of this programme was designed to promote enterprise and business development. A total of €70m was provided for the Enterprise strand, with the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation contributing about €18m over that period. Our co-funders from Northern Ireland were the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, or the Department of Finance and Personnel, depending on the exact nature of the individual projects.
Approximately 28 projects were involved. The two most significant projects with a physical legacy were the provision of two multi-million Euro Science Parks in Derry and Letterkenny, and the provision of two new Enterprise Centres, one in Omagh, and one in Carrick-on-Shannon.
ENDS
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