Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

32. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the way in which her Department and the Government are evaluating the results of the Action Plan for Jobs of her predecessor; the new actions needed to carry forward that action plan; the key actions which remained unfulfilled when the current Government began; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32889/16]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Action Plan for Jobs is the Government’s key instruments to support job creation. The Action Plan for Jobs is working. More than 176,000 people are at work today than in 2012 when the first Plan was launched. 36,000 new jobs were created in the first six months of 2016.

While the Action Plan is a whole of Government approach to support job creation, I am responsible for developing the 2017 Plan. My priority is to deliver on this Government’s goal to help create 200,000 additional jobs by 2020, including 135,000 jobs outside Dublin.

The Action Plans are monitored on a quarterly basis. At the end of March 2016, 14 of 77 measures were delayed. All but 2 have since been completed. The delayed actions are a review of the appropriateness of the sub-minima rates which currently apply by the Low Pay Commission and the publication of the Foreign Languages Strategy by the Department of Education and Skills. It is expected that these actions will be completed by the end of the year.

I will be working with Ministerial colleagues to ensure that the 2017 Plan is ambitious and impactful and keeps us on track to deliver on our 2020 targets.