Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 236: To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of positions filled arising from the job initiative; the degree to which this can be enhanced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36333/11]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Government's Jobs Initiative, which was announced last May, was aimed at building confidence to encourage consumers to spend, providing opportunities for re-skilling for those who have lost their jobs and assisting in getting people back to work. It is a cross-Government initiative and the impacts are being seen across a range of sectors.

It is not possible to indicate the exact number of positions which have been filled as a result of the measures which were taken in the Jobs Initiative, as there are indirect as well as direct impacts arising from the Initiative. However, there are some data available in relation to some of the measures taken. The Jobs Initiative introduced a 9% VAT rate from 1 July on a range of services, including hotels and restaurants. The Government also halved employer's PRSI for those on modest wages. These measures are of considerable benefit to tourism and hospitality businesses, lowering their cost base, and allowing them to offer a more competitive product to overseas tourists and domestic consumers.

These measures were credited by the Restaurant Association of Ireland for the creation of 490 new jobs in that sector within the first two months of the implementation of the Jobs Initiative. These measures have also helped in making Irish hotels rooms the cheapest in Europe at present, which has been a factor in boosting Irish tourism numbers. The Government has also brought in a visa-waiver scheme, which was announced in the Jobs Initiative, to further support tourism.

The Jobs Initiative targeted Capital spending at labour-intensive local projects, focussing on school works, local roads, energy efficiency and smarter travel projects. Work undertaken between May and October on sustainable travel projects has created over 14,000 days of employment for local contractors around the country.

The level of take-up and activity under the domestic retrofitting schemes to date is demonstrably supporting employment, given the labour intensive nature of energy efficiency upgrades. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) advises that over 5,800 full time jobs are being supported in 2011. This represents an increase of some 2,000 jobs this year over the 3,800 jobs already being supported under the Schemes.

The JobBridge National Internship Programme was launched on 1 July last, and has already seen 2,082 interns start with host organisations up to 18 November, as well as a further 630 who transferred to JobBridge from the Work Placement Programme. A further 2,591 internship opportunities were available on the JobBridge website last week.

Applications for the 5,885 Springboard training places opened on 25 May 2011 through the online applications facility on the Bluebrick.ie. web portal. To date, 4,473 applicants have been accepted and are enrolled on courses and 1,144 applications are currently being processed. The majority of Springboard programmes have commenced within the last 2 months and 70% of all programmes will be completed by June 2012. In relation to other training places, the 3,000 Back to Education Initiative (BTEI) and 1,000 Post-Leaving Cert (PLC) places were allocated in September.

Building on the Jobs Initiative, I am currently preparing a Jobs Strategy for the Government to be launched early in the new year and which will set out a series of clear, actionable measures to support the creation and retention of jobs.