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

This week we launched the fifth Action Plan for Jobs. A key objective of the Action Plan for Jobs process has been to rebuild our economy based on enterprise and entrepreneurship, talent, innovation and exports and provide a solid foundation for future growth. The Action Plan is a to-do list for the economy - a to-do list for the whole of Government. Most importantly it publically commits to exact timetables for delivery with the Department of the Taoiseach together with my Department overseeing and driving implementation and publishing a delivery record each quarter for all to see. It is because of these structures and this approach that the OECD in its review of the APJ in 2014 said it: "marks an important innovation in Irish governance." When we launched the first Action Plan for Jobs in 2012, we set ourselves the target of creating 100,000 extra jobs by 2016, which we surpassed a year and a half ahead of schedule. Therefore, when we launched the 2015 action plan last January, we set a new target to have 2.1 million people in employment by 2018. That target has not changed and is one of the five strategic ambitions we have committed to in the 2016 plan.

In November 2015, we published Enterprise 2025, the ten-year jobs and enterprise strategy which provides the roadmap to build a sustainable economy and have 2.18 million people at work by 2020, an additional 80,000. This would mean more people at work than at any time in the history of the State. We now have the ambition of bringing home 70,000 of the emigrants who were forced to leave due to the crash caused by the policies pursued by the last Government.

The Action Plan for Jobs complements the Government’s Pathways to Work which sets out actions to be taken in support of those who are currently unemployed to help them access the labour market and new job opportunities. Last week, the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection published the new Pathways to Work strategy for the period to 2020. Our Departments will continue to build on the progress to date through the Action Plan for Jobs and Pathways to Work to ensure that more employment opportunities are available to those who are seeking work and, therefore, reducing unemployment.

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