merrion street

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.

One of the biggest challenges facing the Government when it came into office was to deal with the unemployment crisis.

We have to get Ireland working again.

The social and economic well being of the country is dependent on getting people back to work and stopping the drift into long term unemployment.

It was obvious that the existing systems used by previous Governments were no longer fit for purpose and were not up to the massive challenges facing the State.

The Pathways to Work strategy changed all that.

It swept aside a passive welfare system and put in place the building blocks of a new proactive employment support service.

Today’s event is not a report about the end of process of reform.

It is to take stock of the changes introduced and to highlight the huge programme of reform remaining in this area.

Early reforms are starting to have an impact. The most recent figures show youth unemployment is down by 10,000 year-on-year to 49,000 at the end of 2013

With over 1,000 jobs a week being created the unemployment rate is falling and is currently at 11.8%, the lowest rate in 5 years.

We set a target of supporting 75,000 long-term unemployed people to move into employment by the end of 2015. By the end of February of this year, 45,000 of this group were known to have entered employment.

While these trends are welcome, there are still far too many people unemployed who also risk facing a future of welfare dependency.

We are redoubling our efforts to break that cycle.

This year will see new challenges and opportunities.

The Department of Social Protection will roll out its JobsPath plan to contract additional case workers to provide more long term unemployed with a personalised service. These case workers will be incentivised to place as many jobseekers into new jobs as possible.

We want jobseekers to be ready to take those jobs as opportunities arise as the economy recovers.

To achieve this Minister Quinn is overhauling the further education and training sector with this SOLAS strategy.

The focus for this year and next will be on ensuring that further education and training meet the needs of businesses with skills shortages.

Finally we also have to continue to ensure that work always pays and that everyone is better off in work rather than on welfare.

We cannot tolerate a situation where welfare dependency and inter-generational poverty becomes acceptable.

The roll out of the Housing Assistance Payment, currently being piloted in Limerick, will eliminate a large welfare trap related to housing.

I look forward to proposals from the Minister on child income supports and other reforms based on the Expert Group on Tax and Social Welfare to ensure that work always pays.

Further measures to support work will be addressed in the upcoming Pathways strategy for 2014.

I also want to commend the valuable work that has been undertaken by the newly formed Labour Market Council.

The Council was established to advise the Government on matters relating to the implementation of Pathways to Work.

The Council is chaired by Mr. Martin Murphy and is made up of national and international stakeholders and policy experts.

I would like to particularly welcome their focus on employer engagement and on developing an employer charter which has great potential.

Their Report being launched today contains several key recommendations and they will be considered for the upcoming Pathways to Work plan for 2014.

Conclusion

This area of work represents one of the most important for the Government. Welfare reform, work activation reform, employer engagement, education and training reform. They are all pieces of the same jigsaw.

When put together they are overhauling how we manage unemployment and the plan will get Ireland working again.

The Government has much work to do and we are eager to finish the job.