Written answers

Tuesday, 12 May 2015

Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Ministerial Adviser Appointments

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

330. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if there is a political adviser appointed to coordinate the jobs action plan in his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18117/15]

Photo of Richard BrutonRichard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Action Plan for Jobs (APJ) 2015 was published in January and is the fourth in the multi-annual series of a whole of government approach to economic recovery, export growth and job creation. The development and coordination of the Action Plan for Jobs was, and is, led by my Office and Department. Forfás were centrally involved in this process before it was integrated with the Department in August 2014.

At the political level, an Economic Recovery and Jobs Cabinet Committee oversees the development of the Action Plan on an annual basis and reviews progress on a monthly basis. The Committee, which I convene, is chaired by the Taoiseach. It includes the Ministers for Finance; Public Expenditure and Reform; Education and Skills; Social Protection; Communication, Energy and Natural Resources; Transport, Tourism and Sport; Agriculture, Food and the Marine; as well as junior ministers for International Banking, Business and Employment, and Skills, Research and Innovation. The Committee also co-ordinates other relevant sector-based policies including Pathways to Work, thus facilitating synergies and co-ordination across the strategies aimed at supporting sustainable job creation.

At the administrative level, a Monitoring Committee is responsible for overseeing the implementation of the actions identified in the APJ. The Monitoring Committee is jointly chaired by the Secretary Generals my Department and of the Department of the Taoiseach and membership includes the Office of the Tánaiste and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. One of my Advisors is a member of this Monitoring committee.

At the sector level, a number of task forces, groups and committees contribute to the steering and implementation of the APJ.

Since 2012, senior analysts from Forfás/DJEI have been located in the Department of the Taoiseach to support monitoring and co-ordination of the APJ.

I am pleased to note that the OECD in its review of the Action Plan for Jobs process in 2014, that the APJ’s most striking innovation in the Irish public policy context is a coordination mechanism that ensures high-level political buy-in and oversight, whole-of-government engagement, and the establishment of quarterly targets underpinned by a robust monitoring system.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.