merrion street

The Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Eamon Gilmore, T.D., has said the Government will work to achieve full employment by 2020.

Addressing the annual investment conference of Investec Ireland at the National Convention Centre, the Tánaiste pledged that the Government would bring the same focus to bear on achieving full employment as it did to ensuring that Ireland successfully exited the bailout programme.

Speaking to more than 450 leading business people and investors, the Tánaiste said:

“Technology is creating new products and new economic sectors at a rapid pace. Today, thousands of Irish people work in sectors that didn’t exist ten years ago. The centre of economic gravity is shifting to the East, and billions of new workers and consumers are coming into the global trading system. You can either see those trends as threatening, or as opportunities.

The Government is determined that, in the year ahead, we will do more to lay the foundations for the future prosperity of our country. As the world changes, so must our mindset and our footprint. We have to develop and maintain our existing trading and investment links, but we have to build new ones and diversify our export markets. That is why we are expanding our network of embassies and consulates overseas, opening eight new missions, to cover new and emerging markets such as Indonesia, as well as deepening our relationships in the US by opening a consulate in Austin, Texas. The Review of the Tourism, Trade and Investment Strategy, which I launched last month, will help to ensure that the resources of the State – both our embassy network and State agencies – are positioned to deliver maximum overall benefit for the economy, meaning good jobs for our people at home.”