- Innovative Irish healthcare companies will for the first time be able to easily gain access to the health system to test their products and services, increasing the chances of developing commercial ideas and creating jobs
- The health system will be able to gain easy access to innovative companies who can provide solutions to the problems that it faces, making it cheaper and easier to deliver better health-care to more patients
The Hub will aim to support Irish businesses in the crucial pharmaceutical, medical devices and ICT sectors - which together account for over €140billion in annual exports.
The announcement came as the Government published the 10th Action Plan for Jobs quarterly progress report, showing that 123 out of 144 measures earmarked for completion during Q2 2014 have been implemented.
The system of public quarterly progress reports is a crucial part of the Action Plan for Jobs system - the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Minister for Jobs holding themselves accountable in public on delivery every quarter ensures that implementation actually happens, in contrast with many high-profile plans in previous times.
Among the other Q2 measures delivered are:
- Launch of national Trading Online scheme, to help Irish retailers to win more business from the €6billion that Irish consumers spend online every year
- New measures to make it easier for SMEs to access procurement opportunities
- Started recruiting the 35 new staff as part of the IDA 'Winning Abroad' scheme which aims to place new IDA staff in overseas markets and create 10,000 additional jobs
- Legally dissolved 35 CEBs and established 31 Local Enterprise Offices to provide a first-stop-shop for enterprise supports in every county
- Opened applications for the €2million x-factor style county-based competition to find Ireland's Best Young Entrepreneur, as part of a drive to encourage more people to start their own businesses. Over 900 applications have been received so far.
- Established a Project Team to deliver the Year of Irish Design 2015
- Benchmarked Ireland for competitiveness against other countries, with a view to developing actions to further improve our international competitiveness
- Enacted legislation to establish the Strategic Banking Corporation Ireland (SBCI). This initiative will ultimately provide up to €4 billion in low cost funding for SMEs. The SBCI will source funds externally from KfW (Germany’s state development bank) and the European Investment bank (EIB) and lend them to SMEs through innovative loans.
- Completed design of the National Postcodes system, which will improve logistics efficiencies for retailers, particularly facilitating online trading and reducing the risk of purchasing fraud
The Taoiseach, Enda Kenny TD said: "The Government Statement of Priorities puts jobs at the top of the agenda. It is only by getting Ireland working again that we will see economic recovery felt nationwide. Creating new jobs is the great enabler of better living standards and a better future for working families. The Action Plan for Jobs is our key tool to achieve this. The unemployment rate is now the lowest it has been since early 2009 but that is not enough. The Government is committed to reducing the unemployment rate to below 10% by 2016 and to supporting 2.1 million jobs in the economy by 2020, replacing all of the jobs lost during the economic crisis. I'm also delighted that Government has approved the establishment of a National Health Innovation Hub in 2014 that will support new companies, jobs and medical services."
The Tánaiste, Joan Burton TD said: "In our recent Statement of Priorities, the Taoiseach and I made clear that the ongoing task of economic repair would now be accompanied by an equal focus on social recovery. That social recovery starts with jobs, because secure and fairly paid work is the single best protection against poverty. That is why the Action Plan for Jobs is so critically important, because it places job creation at the centre of everything the Government does. The related Pathways to Work strategy, overseen by my Department, is playing a vital role in this process. Whereas the Action Plan is designed to accelerate the transition to a sustainable, jobs-rich economy, the Pathways strategy aims to ensure that as many as possible of those newly created jobs go to people on the Live Register. Unemployment is down from a crisis peak of 15.1% to 11.6% now, and while that remains too high, it is clear we are making firm and steady progress. The Government's task now is to increase the pace of that progress."
The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD said: "The last three months have seen significant progress in job-creation. For example, IDA and Enterprise Ireland have published interim results showing job-creation is up between 10-20% on the same period last year. We have established 31 Local Enterprise Offices, to provide a better and more services to start-ups and SMEs at a local level. We have received over 900 applications for Ireland's Best Young Entrepreneur, as part of a drive to encourage more people to start their own business. And today we are announcing the Health Innovation Hub is a major new initiative that will make it easier for Irish healthcare and ICT companies to commercialise their ideas and create jobs."
"70,000 jobs have been added across the economy in the past 18 months. Every region and virtually every sector has felt the benefits. However there is a long way to go. The Action Plan for Jobs is the crucial mechanism we have for making the policy changes and providing the new supports that will allow businesses to create the jobs we need. There will be no let-up in our determination over the coming years to add 100,000 jobs by 2016, and replace all the jobs that were lost by 2020."
Minister of State with Special Responsibility for Small Business Gerald Nash TD said: "One of the key objectives of the Action Plan for Jobs 2014 is to ensure that Irish businesses stop seeing online trading as a threat and more of an opportunity. Only a quarter of Irish micro-businesses trade online. With about 80% of the population online regularly, we need to get more Irish companies selling their services and products online, and that will be a very important focus in the period ahead."
For further information, please visit:
http://www.hih.ie
About the HIH
The HIH is a government supported initiative under the Action Plan for Jobs 2013. Its purpose is to support Ireland's healthcare industries and the Irish healthcare system to collaborate in developing new solutions that improve costs. By doing this, the HIH will support Irish businesses, create exports and jobs at home. This has been established as a demonstrator hub to test the hub model for Ireland.
The HIH will partner with companies and chosen projects to fast-track commercialisation and implementation of innovations into the healthcare system.