Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is wonderful to be back at this fantastic Kerry Group facility to launch the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs for 2016.
Kerry Group is a fantastic international Irish company that boosts Ireland’s business reputation worldwide as they continue to expand abroad.
I was delighted that the Government, through Enterprise Ireland, could support the development of this global technology and food innovation centre.
As such it is a fitting location to launch Action Plan for Jobs 2016.
When we began this journey in 2011, I said that the ultimate and top priority of the Government was to get people back to work – yes we had to rebuild the economy; stabilise the public finances; get the banks back on a solid footing.
And we did all of those things.
But jobs had to be top.
Because a job doesn’t just mean an income.
A job can transform a life. Give a person a role and a stake.
A job offers the chance to make a contribution. It helps young people, in particular, find their own path in life and strike out to a new future.
When we began, unemployment was above 15% and hundreds of thousands of jobs had been lost with the crash.
But we knew that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, so we started to put those steps together.
Action by action.
We sat down and worked with industry whether it was an expanding Irish company like Kerry, an incoming multinational, or even a single person start up.
We committed ourselves to a process in which all Government Departments and Agencies would play a part and, most importantly, would be accountable to me for implementing what was agreed.
We set ourselves an initial target of creating 100,000 additional jobs by 2016.
I’m delighted to report that we hit that target. I’m delighted not for the Government but for the 135,000 people who got a job.
Their hard work is working.
But we are far from finished.
This is why, if returned to office, we are planning to double our ambition and create another 200,000 jobs by 2020 in order to reach full employment.
With these plans we expect to see unemployment in all regions to be within 1% of the national average in every region by 2020.
This is no easy target and it will require a redoubling of our efforts.
The Action Plan process has been very successful in driving implementation across Government and this high level of collaboration is something that I would like to see expanded in the next Government.
Supporting new job creation will be a central plank of our long term economic plan for the country.
For this reason, building on the success of the Action Plan process, I will develop a Long Term Economic Plan Delivery Unit within the Department of An Taoiseach to coordinate the key elements of our economic plan, including new Action Plans for Jobs, in the next Government.
This will ensure that keeping the recovery going will be on top of the agenda of all Government Departments and Agencies.
For this year, this 2016 Action Plan seeks to add another 50,000 jobs to the economy.
It will be an important stepping stone in our recovery towards full employment.
It is a challenge, but one that we have to deliver on.
In this year’s plan we have over 300 actions, and Minister Bruton will be saying a bit more about some of these shortly.
They are designed to support enterprise, growth, competitiveness and job creation.
It builds on the reforms carried out under previous Action Plans, but looks ahead also to prepare us for new challenges and opportunities that will present themselves.
Its five Disruptive Reforms, in particular, look to build a more sustainable economy –
· Ensuring we have the supply of talented people we need to keep the recovery going;
· Spreading the benefits to every community in the country through an enhanced regional approach;
· Taking all business transactions with Government fully online by 2017;
· Putting a new clustering initiative in place that will help drive enterprise, support entry to new markets, gain access to new global markets in areas such as engineering, agri-food, global business services, ICT and life sciences. All critical industries for our country; and
· Delivering a range of initiatives in intellectual property to put Ireland at the cutting edge in Europe.
The creation of 200,000 new jobs is the first step in our long term economic plan.
It is essential to creating a strong economy so that we can lower taxes on workers and invest in public services.
The recovery is not yet complete and could easily go into reverse if not managed correctly.
But this Government of Fine Gael and Labour have a plan to keep the country going.
Before I finish I want to thank specifically the industry partners who have given so much of their time and expertise to work with my Government to deliver the Action Plan for Jobs 2016, helping to create jobs and opportunities for all of our people.
Thank you.
Government launches Action Plan for Jobs 2016