Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

The jobs initiative announced yesterday is a clear statement that the new Government has a new approach to the economic crisis. This jobs package demonstrates the new Government has done more in two months to promote employment and economic recovery than the previous Government did in two years. Despite the very real fiscal constraints we have inherited, we have produced a package of measures of more than €1.8 billion. More important, we have made it clear that from now on, dealing with the jobs crisis is and will be the central component of economic strategy.

Unemployment is not a matter of statistics. The unemployed are our neighbours, our children and our friends. They are people who want nothing more than the opportunity to work in their own country, provide for their families and just to get on building their lives. This Government is determined to do everything it can to provide our people with those opportunities.

The task we face is difficult. We are experiencing the consequences of a very severe recession in which GDP has fallen by 12% between 2007 and 2010. The labour market has been subject to a profound shock. Employment is down by 300,000 and unemployment is over 14%. Many sectors of the economy have experienced job losses, including the construction sector which has lost more than 160,000 jobs and the wholesale and retail sectors are down by almost 45,000. Employment in industry is also down by approximately 50,000. We can recover some of these employment losses if we can get credit flowing again and if we improve confidence in the economy. We can achieve higher rates of economic growth through export-led expansion. The key goal of this jobs initiative is to give people that confidence; to believe that Ireland can and will recover and that we, all of us, can have a brighter, more prosperous future. This will not be done overnight. This is why the Government did not wish to talk-up yesterday's announcement. There is no package of measures or set of announcements that will put all our people back to work at the stroke of a pen even though I wish this were the case. The task is great, but so too is the determination of this Government.

The jobs initiative announced yesterday by my colleague, the Minister for Finance, launched a range of taxation and expenditure measures which are designed to help to get people back to work. The expenditure measures are, in the main, funded by a reallocation of resources towards areas that are more productive and worthwhile from an economic perspective and which, above all, are labour-intensive. The vast majority of these measures are to be funded through the prioritisation of existing resources, with additional total expenditure of €40 million in 2011, funded through the levy on pension funds announced yesterday by the Minister for Finance.

It is a fact that employment in some sectors of our economy will never again reach the inflated heights of the boom years, most notably in the construction industry. Other sectors have also seen a decline in employment opportunities due to changes in both the global and domestic economies. We have to meet these challenges with solutions that reflect the economy as it will be and as we want it to be, rather than how it was. That means giving people the skills they need to take advantage of the kinds of jobs that are being created now. This is the reason for our focus on training. We have prioritised and revamped our labour activation policy.

The Government is determined to help those who are unemployed to avail of job opportunities as they arise and as our economic circumstances improve, as improve they will. The labour market activation measures announced yesterday will ensure that those people who are now out of work are given the opportunity to maintain and improve their skills and experience to take best advantage of future and current employment opportunities. An additional 20,900 places will be made available for training, education and upskilling under this programme. The sheer number of unemployed means that we must invest in the development of a more comprehensive and effective labour market activation strategy, one that strengthens the links between receiving benefits, searching for a job and participating in employment and training programmes. We need to have these aspects joined up . A smarter, more integrated approach to labour market activation can stimulate the pace and influence the nature of the outflow from the live register. Such policies assist and encourage jobseekers back into work. They should range from relatively light interventions, such as job search assistance and monitoring, to more intensive measures such as training and education intervention and work placement initiatives. Our labour market activation policy needs to be re-invigorated to provide the full range of interventions that are now required to address the issue of unemployment.

More effective, regular and deeper interaction with unemployed individuals is required. The Department of Social Protection is putting measures in place to re-invigorate the national employment action plan, making it fit for purpose.

See this speech in context