Some 42 applications to the Regional Enterprise Development Fund (REDF) were successfully awarded funding to the amount of €60 million across the country, according to Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphreys.
Minister Humphreys announced the number in response to a question on the matter put in by independent TD for Tipperary Mattie McGrath.
In total, 152 applications were received under the first and second calls of the REDF, comprising a total of 75 projects under the first and 77 projects under the second call of the initiative, the minister said in response to deputy McGrath’s question.
A breakdown of the successful projects was revealed by the minister, incorporating the lead region and participant companies for each initiative.
In a statement she said: “Eligible projects submitted went through a rigorous seven-stage process before being awarded funding.
“A standard scoring template was used at all stages to ensure consistency of approach,” Minister Humphreys added.
As this was a competitive process, not all projects were successful. However, to ensure a balanced regional spread, I committed to ensuring that each region would benefit by at least €2 million from the fund once the required standard for projects is met under the evaluation criteria.
“This threshold has now been met across all regions, the minister said.
Giving some background on the programme, Minister Humphreys said: “The REDF is a €60 million competitive fund introduced by my department and administered by Enterprise Ireland.
“It is aimed at supporting collaborative and innovative projects that can help to sustain and add to employment at a national, regional and county level.
The REDF was designed to support the ambition in the programme for Government to create an additional 200,000 new jobs by 2020, of which 135,000 are to be located outside of Dublin.
“One of the principal criteria within the scheme is that proposed projects would strengthen the potential for job creation in their region, thereby contributing to delivering on the Government’s ambition.”