Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Government’s Economic Recovery Plan (ERP), published on 1 June 2021, set out renewed supports, investments and policies to underpin economic recovery and transition, to support the full resumption of economic activity, and get people back to work as quickly as possible. The Plan includes the overarching ambition of having 2.5 million people in work by 2024, a target which has already been exceeded according to the Q4 2021 figures released through the CSO’s Labour Force Survey in February this year.

The ERP outlined supports to help businesses deal with the direct impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as setting out the Government’s medium-term approach to creating the right environment for a jobs-led recovery and, crucially, to ensure that these jobs are more productive, innovative, resilient and in new areas of opportunity.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Government has invested heavily to help the sectors and workers most impacted by the pandemic and to stabilise the labour market. Schemes such as the Employee Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS), the Covid Restrictions Support Scheme (CRSS) and the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) were introduced to support the changing needs of industry through the various stages of the public health crisis, as well as to support industry through the transition back to the full reopening of the economy. Since its introduction, the EWSS, an economy-wide support for enterprise, has made €6.7billion in payments to support over 50,000 employers and nearly three quarters of a million employees. Under the CRSS €727million was paid to 25,700 businesses impacted by COVID-19 restrictions. As of the beginning of February 2022, over €9.1billion had been paid out through the PUP.

"Pillar 3" of the ERP outlines how the Government intends to rebuild sustainable enterprises as the economy recovers. The Plan adopts a two-pronged recovery approach to rebuilding sustainable enterprises - supporting the domestic SME sector, which is critical to broad-based jobs-led economic growth, whilst leveraging the enormous strength of the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) sector. It aims to create an environment for a jobs-led recovery through a focus on expanding sectors and by helping business become more resilient and agile.

Progress on the wide range of deliverables and workstreams across the four pillars of the ERP, towards the plan’s overall ambition is being overseen by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Recovery and Investment and related sub-groups and Senior Officials Groups and a high-level progress report is due to be published in early June.

In addition to the work already underway, the Government is also looking to prepare for the economy of the future. On 1 March 2022, Government agreed to the development of a White Paper on Enterprise Policy in 2022, led by my Department. The White Paper will set out set out an ambitious medium- to long-term direction for enterprise policy in response to challenges, opportunities and new drivers of growth catalysed by the Covid-19 pandemic, new economic and geopolitical realities, and an increased urgency to accelerate the decarbonisation of industry. In so doing, the White Paper will articulate what needs to be done differently to realise this vision and to set out clearly the risks to be faced - such as energy, skills availability, technological change, etc. - and the policy choices and trade-offs that will arise in order to maintain high-quality jobs, to protect the elements which make Ireland’s economy globally attractive for investment and to ensure a competitive Irish economy into the future.

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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My Department and I are aware that it is essential that Irish enterprise has access to high quality, adaptable and flexible talent, and that workers have the opportunity to upskill or reskill in areas of identified skills needs for the Irish economy.

This is critical at a time when the digital and green transitions, and their associated behavioural changes, are altering the economy and leading to permanent changes in our labour market and business models. Not all jobs will return as we recover from the pandemic, while embracing these transitions will open up substantial new employment opportunities, as well as potential skills mismatches as these opportunities emerge.

This is the basis of the approach set out in the Government’s Economic Recovery Plan, which is supporting the transition of Ireland’s economy and workforce to the new digital and green economies. This goal is being realised through ongoing support for people in securing and remaining in sustainable and quality employment, in areas of identified skills needs for business. This is being achieved in particular through the combination of 50,000 upskilling and reskilling opportunities set out in the Recovery Plan, as well as increased labour market activation interventions through the Government’s Pathways to Work 2021-2025 strategy.

This targeted approach to upskilling and reskilling is building upon the longstanding collaboration between my Department, as well as its enterprise agencies, with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and the wider education and training system, with a view to building and retaining a highly skilled indigenous workforce to serve the needs of the economy.

Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland engage on an ongoing basis with education and training providers on behalf of their client companies, and have worked to develop bespoke provision to meet emerging skills needs, in particular through new Apprenticeship and Skillnet Ireland programmes.

My Department and its enterprise agencies actively participate in Ireland’s responsive National Skills Architecture, which aims to ensure that education and training provision is optimally aligned with identified skills needs across the enterprise base. This architecture is overseen by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.

My Department hosts the Secretariat to the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN), the independent group which advises the Government on the current and future skills needs of Ireland’s economy, and whose members include relevant Government Departments, the enterprise development agencies, Ireland’s agencies for Higher Education and Further Education and Training, and representation from the trade union and business communities. The EGFSN forms a key part of this responsive skills architecture.

Through its horizon scanning and thematic studies at sectoral and occupational level, the development of which involves comprehensive engagement with stakeholders across the public sector, enterprise and the education and training system, the work of the EGFSN- together with the labour market intelligence of the Skills and Labour Market Research Unit in SOLAS- helps inform the work of the National Skills Council, which is comprised of the chief skills policy stakeholders from across the public and private sectors.

The membership of this Council, which is serviced by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, includes the Secretary General of my Department, as well as the Chief Executives of Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland. The Council advises on the allocation of resources to address identified and emerging skills needs across the economy, in particular through the National Training Fund, while also working to maximise the responses to these needs by education and training providers.

The Fund, which has budgeted for expenditure of €752m in 2022, supports competitive funding based programmes such as Springboard+, the Human Capital Initiative, Skillnet Ireland, cross sectoral apprenticeships, and SOLAS’ Skills to Compete and Skills to Advance programmes. This funding supports either fully free or heavily subsidised opportunities in areas of identified skills needs, which serves to incentivise and maximise engagement by employers and workers.

The work of the Council is also informed by the activities of the network of nine Regional Skills Fora, which work to address the skills needs of regional enterprise by enhancing linkages and engagement between local education and training providers and employers, and by helping employers better understand and access the full range of services available across the education and training system. Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and the relevant Local Enterprise Offices are represented on each of the nine Fora.

The Fora in particular have facilitated Enterprise Ireland’s Spotlight on Skills workshops, a partnership with the Irish Management Institute, which continue to support employers in understanding and planning for the skills needs of their enterprises, and through subsequent engagement with the Regional Skills Manager, address these needs through local education and training providers.