merrion street

Pictured are Martin Shanahan, CEO, Forfas, Minister Richard Bruton, Yves Lenterme, Deputy Secetary General, OECD.

Jobs Minister Richard Bruton today welcomed the publication by the OECD of its Review of the Action Plan for Jobs, which concludes that the plan is working while recommending adjustments in the future to maximise its potential.

With 60,000 jobs created in the past year, Ireland has the fastest employment growth rate in the OECD.

Among the conclusions of the report are:

• The Action Plan for Jobs was “a most welcome and important initiative when launched in February 2012”.
• The APJ’s focus on private sector-led, export-oriented job creation by getting framework conditions right and continually upgrading the business environment is a sound approach
• The focus on building and strengthening linkages between the domestic SME and multinational sector is also welcome
• The concerted whole-of-government policy implementation with political buy-in, oversight and direction at the highest level is a significant positive development in Irish public governance – this “marks an important innovation in Irish governance”
• The rigorous quarterly monitoring and reporting system is another such significant positive development in Irish governance
• Future improvements should include introducing a comprehensive performance assessment framework to measure progress towards achieving its strategic objectives
• Future improvements should also include ensuring oversight for strategy-setting, policy execution, and performance monitoring by the Economic Recovery and Jobs Committee

Welcoming the report, Minister Bruton said:

Given the scale of the jobs challenge we face, it is crucial that we continually learn lessons and improve our efforts in this area. That is why we asked the OECD, the globe’s foremost policy think-tank with decades of experience in providing policy recommendations to Governments around the world, to examine the Action Plan for Jobs and provide an assessment of how well it is working and how we can improve things.

The OECD’s broad conclusion that the plan is working is very welcome. However they also provide important conclusions on areas where we can make improvements and recommendations for how we can do that. We will be taking these recommendations on board as part of Action Plan 2014 and 2015.

Read the report

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