Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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31. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the extent to which his Department has achieved the various targets in respect of job creation in both the manufacturing and services sectors over the past four and a half years; the degree to which he expects to meet any further targets in this regard in the short and medium term; if any particular issue has been identified as positive or otherwise in the pursuit of job creation in respect of all age groups, including the long-term unemployed and young unemployed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28626/15]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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The Action Plan for Jobs is having a positive impact on employment in the economy, since the first Plan was launched in early 2012. As of Q1 2015, there were an additional 104,000 at work in the economy since the launch of the first Action Plan for Jobs, which achieved and exceeded the Government's target of 100,000 extra at work by 2016. The services sector made the largest contribution to the achievement of the Government's target of 100,000 more at work. Following a number of years of decline in employment from 2007, I am pleased to report that the manufacturing sector has also recorded increases in job numbers since 2011.

In relation to agency assisted firms, the net increase in fulltime employment since the launch of the Action Plan for Jobs to 2014 is 25,665, of which there a was a net increase of 8,051 in manufacturing employment and a net increase of 17,614 in internationally traded services employment. This equates to just under one-third, or 31 per cent, of the net increase in full-time employment in agency assisted firms was in manufacturing and two-thirds of the net increase was in internationally traded services enterprises, since the launch of the Action Plan for Jobs.

Arising from the strategy for the manufacturing sector 'Making it in Ireland: Manufacturing 2020', prepared by Forfás and the report of the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs Skills Report on the skills needs for the sector, both of which I launched in 2013, there are now a range of initiatives beg progressed by my Department and relevant Agencies to drive the Government's jobs targets.

Manufacturing was a Disruptive Reform in the Action Plan for Jobs 2014 and is a key focus in the 2015 Action Plan for Jobs and also in the regional Action Plans for Jobs, with a range of measures designed to support industry growth including encouraging entrepreneurship, further improving our skills base, improving access to finance by SMEs and supporting indigenous companies and foreign-owned manufacturing companies to transform their businesses as part of a National Step Change Initiative. The Manufacturing Development Forum is helping to address the key issues arising from the Strategy recommendations. My Department is also preparing a guide for manufacturing firms to state support available. These initiatives are important to growing and sustaining the competitiveness of existing enterprises, to sustaining employment and to attracting new investment.

For both manufacturing and services sectors, skills and talent development and attraction are critically important. We have a good skills base on which to grow our manufacturing and services sectors and as the economy recovers there will be further opportunities for the unemployed. My Department and its agencies has a Protocol in place with the Department of Social Protection to ensure that where new job openings are available, that there is an efficient and timely matching between those unemployed and skills required by enterprise and that appropriate training or development is available. The Apprenticeship Council is also in the process of reviewing a range of proposals for new apprenticeships to meet the current and future skills needs of manufacturing and services sectors. These new apprenticeships will also provide a range of opportunities for the long terms and youth unemployed.

The development of the Competitiveness for manufacturing and services investment remains an ongoing area of focus and, as reminded recently by the National Competitiveness Council when they published the 2015 Cost of Doing Business Report, while we have made progress in improving our comparative position, there is still further progress required. Costs in Ireland have fallen across a range of business inputs since 2009, making Ireland more competitive internationally. This is reflected in our ongoing ability to successfully compete internationally for trade and investment and in our improving performance across a range of international competitiveness benchmarking reports – for example, we have moved from 24th to 16th in the IMD's World Competitiveness Yearbook.