‘Brave policy decisions and investment in jobs will speed our recovery’ - Minister O’Keeffe

Posted on 08/09/10 by Batt O’Keeffe

Op-Ed from the Irish Examiner, 8th of September, by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Batt O'Keeffe TD.

Last week, I signed off on staffing resources for IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland - the two most important Government agencies for job creation and economic recovery.

Both agencies have said they are satisfied with the agreed numbers which will enable them to meet their job creation targets.

IDA Ireland aims to create 98,000 direct new jobs through foreign direct investments over the next six years which will lead to another 68,000 indirect jobs in the wider economy.

Enterprise Ireland, meanwhile, has plans to create 63,000 direct new jobs in Irish firms which will generate another 44,000 spin-off jobs.

IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland unreservedly said they were satisfied with the agreed numbers - dispelling any notion that the Government was locked in some kind of 'row' with the two agencies over staff.

It should be recalled that agreement on staff was reached in the context of Government policy to keep the pay bill down by reducing public service numbers.

Since being notified earlier this year of the staff reductions required in my area, intense negotiations have been under way with the Department of Finance on how the cuts could be achieved and managed.

I have made it clear since I was appointed Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation in March that I wanted the enterprise agencies protected to the greatest extent possible.

The transfer of Fás functions to the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Social Protection delayed finalising overall staff levels for my Department and agencies.

Now that agreement has been reached it is clear that I have prioritised job creation in allocating the available numbers because it would be counter-intuitive to do otherwise if we want to return to economic growth.

The Government's commitment to Ireland's economic recovery is steadfast.

Investment in enterprise will be up 25pc over the next six years as part of our economic recovery plan.

I fought hard at Cabinet for more investment in enterprise as the spending plans for the job creation agencies and the innovation sector show.

During the summer the Taoiseach announced the six-year €39 billion capital review plan.

Under the plan, we will invest 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.

We will invest €2.4 billion in science, technology and innovation programmes to create new high-quality jobs and bring more researchers and firms together to produce the high-tech products of tomorrow.

While I do not consider it helpful to politicise the unemployment issue, I do believe it is in the public interest to point out that Fine Gael's much-vaunted centrepiece jobs strategy, NewERA, does not even appear to have the support of the party proposing it.

Yesterday morning, Richard Bruton, Fine Gael's enterprise spokesman, said during a radio interview that 'the essence of the proposal isn't creating jobs'.

This comes after Fine Gael's finance spokesman, Michael Noonan, described NewERA's jobs target figure as a 'public relations add-on' a few weeks ago.

If the main Opposition party continues to undermine its own jobs policy in this fashion, it is difficult to have confidence in Enda Kenny to lead us out of recession and back to growth.

There is no doubt that recent unemployment figures are disappointing.

They capture the scale of the challenge we face as an economy.

Behind the figures are many human stories of families coming to terms with loss of income and dramatically changed personal circumstances.

Although Ireland has technically emerged from recession and growth is predicted for the second half of this year and into next year, job growth is always slower to materialise as other economic indicators pick up.

But 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.

Meanwhile, initiatives such as the Employer Job (PRSI) Incentive Scheme, Employment Subsidy Scheme and Enterprise Stabilisation Fund are supporting employers and securing many thousands of 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 getting credit flowing to viable small businesses.

In the last recession in the 1980s, political instability and an unwillingness to take tough decisions quickly resulted in massive emigration and a slow painful recovery.

This time, I believe our recovery will be faster and the pain shorter-lived because we are pursuing the right policies on the public finances and investing wisely in enterprise and jobs.