I am inquiring about the status of the regional enterprise plans, many of which were completed in 2020. Can I get an update on them, particularly in the context of Brexit but also in the context of the Covid pandemic, and the benefits there have been for regional enterprise?

Regional enterprise development is a key policy priority for me and the Government and is a core element of the national development plan. The enterprise agencies of my Department directly and indirectly support approximately 635,000 jobs in the regions outside Dublin.

In preparing for Brexit, the Government introduced a range of measures to assist businesses and SMEs. The 2022 budget allocation provided to Enterprise Ireland and the local enterprise offices will be used to service existing programmes as well as to provide the scope to explore the potential for new schemes to address the ongoing impact of Covid-19 and Brexit. The customs insights course from Enterprise Ireland helps businesses understand the key customs concepts, documentation and processes required to move goods from, to and through the UK.

To date, my Department has made available over €126 million in regional enterprise funding through the regional enterprise development fund, the Border enterprise development fund, BEDF, and the regional enterprise transition scheme to assist locally-led regional enterprise and development projects. The BEDF was launched in 2020 with the aim of improving the international competitiveness of enterprises in the Border region in the context of Brexit and other market challenges. To date, 11 projects have secured funding of €17.4 million under this fund. The BEDF is part of a €28 million economic stimulus package for Border counties and further enhances Brexit supports for smaller businesses supported by the LEOs and drives SME business transformation for businesses in the Border region who are challenged by Brexit and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

My Department’s regional enterprise transition scheme was recently introduced as part of the Government’s programme of assistance for regional enterprise development and assistance to regions facing difficulties as a consequence of Brexit and Covid-19. Last October, 24 projects secured funding of €9.3 million, with funding approved in each region. I assure the Deputy that I will continue to work with my colleagues across the Government and with stakeholders to examine all appropriate business supports to assist businesses impacted by Brexit.

I thank the Minister of State for those details. How stand the specific regional enterprise plans? Many of them came to their conclusion in 2020. Will they be renewed and put back in place?

The Minister of State mentioned much macro stuff which was irrelevant. I will try to give him a sense of real broadband issues. A leading domestic and international exporting company has been in a small town for nearly 90 years. It cannot get access to proper broadband to allow it to e-tail the company and provide a better service to its customers, both retail and wholesale. The relevant town will not be included in the national broadband plan for several years. Those are the day-to-day challenges facing enterprises in our regions.

In the context of Brexit, the Minister of State mentioned the customs courses. What specific programmes are in place for companies in the west and in the Border region who face the disadvantage of challenging companies which have the best of both worlds, as it were, in Northern Ireland?

The Deputy is right that the previous regional enterprise plans are coming to a close at the end of this year. Under the previous plan, €16.7 million was invested in the west on nine specific projects. The new plans are coming to the final stage. These plans have been developed through key stakeholder engagement, involving Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, the local enterprise offices, local authorities and many private enterprises operating in specific regions. We want each plan to produce proposals unique to the specific region. We hope to launch the west regional enterprise plan at the end of January or the beginning of February. Last week the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform approved funding of €140 million to underpin the nine regional enterprise plans, enabling us to put out a call in the middle of next year for funding proposals to support enterprise development across the nine regions, including that of the west.

I welcome that. We could take the entire €140 million in the west. Will the plans encompass the Government's new climate action priorities, particularly in the west? There is much rather lazy focus on wind energy, but much more could be done with hydrogen production and advancing the infrastructure of the area in a climate-friendly way. Will the enterprise plan include specific targets to encourage companies and communities to embrace that? Will the shortcomings of the previous plan, which were not delivered for whatever reason, be addressed in preparing the new plan?

The plans are bottom-up in nature. They will be designed with input from the key stakeholders in each region. It is up to the regions to devise their own plans and to prioritise what they see are the most ambitious targets they can achieve within their regions in the coming years. I already outlined the key stakeholders that will participate in that. I would be happy to get a copy of the draft plan and share it with the Deputy and he can have an input into it in that way.

Lessons need to be learned from the previous plans. Much of the funding that was allocated has not been drawn down and we need to understand why. Obviously, the Covid pandemic was a contributory factor but it is not the only reason. Earlier this week I met the CEO of Enterprise Ireland who is determined that the new schemes to be announced next year take account of the past experiences and what went wrong with some of the schemes in the previous plan.