‘Brave decisions will get us through tough times’ -  Op-ed from Minister O’Keeffe

Posted on 10/08/10 by Batt O’Keeffe

There is no doubt that the latest jobless figures are disappointing.

They capture the human cost of recession as many thousands of our talented workers join dole queues across the country.

While we must always try to be optimistic, hope itself is not enough to effect economic recovery and a return to prosperity.

But perseverance and brave policy decisions will bring us through this dark period.

Earlier this year, Ireland emerged from recession and roughly 3pc economic growth is forecast for next year.

With recovery will come jobs - and the Government is taking steps to protect and create jobs.

We know that the best way to get people back to work is to get our house in order - and we are doing that by fixing the banking system; restoring order to the public finances; regaining our competitiveness; and creating jobs.

In the last recession in the 1980s, we stalled on doing those things and the result was massive emigration and a slow painful recovery.

This time, our recovery will be quicker - because the Government has the guts to take tough decisions to put the country back on track.

Last month, I secured increased investment for enterprise and job creation initiatives under the six-year capital review plan.

Under the plan, the Government is investing almost €1.2 billion in our job creation agencies to create more than 270,000 jobs up to 2016.

A further 30,000 jobs will be supported annually under the capital infrastructure programme while some 10,000 jobs will created through retrofitting and energy projects.

Over the next six years, we will invest €2.4 billion in science, technology and innovation programmes to create new high-quality jobs.

Meanwhile, the Employer Job (PRSI) Incentive Scheme will create up to 10,000 new jobs in one year by saving employers taking on a worker unemployed for six months or more €3,000.

In the agri-food, tourism and green sectors, our policies are supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country.

But our strategy is as much about creating new jobs as it is about supporting unemployed workers.

Our training programmes and extra places in further and higher education are re-skilling our workforce to take up new jobs in growth areas of the economy.

We have increased the number of training supports from 66,000 in 2008 to over 160,000 this year.

Under the Employment Subsidy Scheme, we are investing over €130 million to help more than 1,600 firms to keep 80,000 workers in jobs.

The Enterprise Stabilisation Fund supported over 7,500 jobs last year.

Small businesses employ some 700,000 workers out of a total labour force of 1.9 million.

To stay alive and grow, they need working capital.

If our greedy bankers refuse credit to viable small businesses, we will use our legislative powers to force them to lend - but only after they are named and shamed.

The Government will announce new measures shortly to make it more attractive for some 64,000 people who are on a three-day week to work the full five days.

And I am examining how barriers to graduates or others taking up offers of job placements can be removed.

As long as we have dole queues, the Government will not relent in our efforts to put more of our people back to work.

We have cause for confidence.

The rate of redundancies notified to my Department has dropped sharply in the past 12 months and the economic indicators for a return to growth towards the end of this year are encouraging.

Now, we must have confidence - to lend, spend, invest and hire.

In the past, we have beaten recession and emerged stronger than before.

This time, I know we will do so again - only quicker.