Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Ireland suffered a fall of more than 300,000 in the number of people in employment in the three years to March 2011. The private sector experienced the brunt of the job losses, with the construction sector alone losing 150,000 jobs in the period. To reverse this trend and deliver our target of 100,000 extra jobs by 2016 will require a major transformation in the economy. The new economy which we must build will be based on enterprise, innovation and exporting. For the Government to promote this transformation will require progress on a number of fronts, including improving competitiveness, improving access to finance, embedding a jobs agenda within the necessary fiscal consolidation, taking strategic action to facilitate growth in sectors with significant potential and improving the capacity to convert good ideas into good jobs.

The action plan for jobs seeks to integrate work across the whole of Government to deliver the focus on employment. Actions are delivered in accordance with stretching timelines. The progress we have made in our first 18 months in office is encouraging, but there is a long way to go. Employment in export oriented companies supported by the agencies under my Department has increased by a net 10,000 in the past 18 months. This is in sharp contrast to losses of 45,000 among such companies in the previous three years.

It is particularly encouraging to see that exports from indigenous companies have been growing even faster than foreign direct investment and reached €15.2 billion in exports in 2011, the highest level ever.

In spite of continued job losses in more traditional sectors such as construction, and financial, insurance and administrative activities, we are seeing stabilisation in the level of private sector employment. However, the downgrading of growth forecasts in most of our trading partners will create a particularly challenging environment for the next 12 months. We are working on the preparation of proposals for the action plan for jobs 2013. I have had a number of consultative meetings and invite submissions for consideration for the strategy.

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