COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, ENTERPRISE AND TOURISM SPC

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

HEADED ITEM NO. 4

HEADED ITEM: V. O'Donnell

ENTERPRISE STRATEGY UPDATE

REPLY:

Following completion of a tender process, Future Analytics Consulting Ltd. were engaged in May 2016 by the Council (on behalf of the four Dublin Local Authorities) to prepare a Dublin Regional Enterprise Strategy with the requirement to:

• Reference and have appropriate regard for local, regional, national and international enterprise related policies, strategies, supports, infrastructure and contexts;
• Provide a clear overview of the current enterprise position in the County showing the roles of key stakeholders; identifying strong, weak and emerging markets; examination of existing skills base together with future skills projections including identifying any potential skills gaps;
• Critically examine the potential strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the development and promotion of an enterprise culture and dynamic in the County;
• Build on the analysis, policy and existing landscape to identify key objectives and recommendations to maximise the promotion and development of enterprise covering areas including awareness, education, training, supports, job creation, accessibility;
• Provide clear short-, medium- and longer- term actions to build on the objectives and recommendations highlighting priority deliverables for each objective and identifying appropriate timeframes, stakeholders, outcomes, metrics etc.;
• Have a specific focus on innovation and entrepreneurship in the County including identifying supports and initiatives required to promote, develop and support these areas and including potential future target business sectors and markets specifically for these areas;
• Include analysis of education and skills profile, provision, trends and future projections together with solutions to address current and potential deficits relating to identified possible future market gaps and shortages;
• Present proposals for the development of an business opportunities register which examines potential related activities aligned with current/planned economic, infrastructure, project and other developments in the County;
• Include an examination of other relevant areas which may impact on its successful delivery.

Following extension research, data analysis, consultation and workshops with various relevant stakeholders, a draft report has been prepared for consideration by the four Dublin Local Authorities.  The structure of this draft report is currently as follows:

Executive Summary

Section 1 Establishing the Context

Section 2 Understanding the Enterprise Policy Framework

Section 3 Current Enterprise Landscape of the Dublin Region

Section 4 Developing an Enterprise Strategy for the Dublin Region

Section 5 Actions for Enterprise Delivery

Section 6 Summary and Conclusion

It was intended to bring the draft report to this SPC meeting for the members of the Committee to review and decide whether to recommend its adoption.  However, following analysis by staff across the 4 DLAs, Future Analytics Consulting Ltd. have been requested to review certain aspects of the report including:

• Refining the vision statement of the document;
• Reducing the policy/context focus in favour of improved analysis and outcomes;
• Streamlining of enterprise actions;
• Removing detailed references to ancillary issues;
• Developing proposals for the business opportunities register;
• Enhanced focus on actions relating to the identification of, and filling, the skills gaps in the enterprise space;

Following this review, it is anticipated that the Final Draft Report will be circulated to the members of the SPC for consideration later this month.