“A key goal of the Department of Environment is to contribute to national recovery through the timely delivery of our policies and programmes especially in support of job creation”
“A key goal of the Department of Environment is to contribute to national recovery through the timely delivery of our policies and programmes especially in support of job creation”, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Mr Phil Hogan, T.D., & Jan O’Sullivan Minister for Housing and Planning said today (27 February 2014) as they welcomed publication of the 2014 Action Plan for Jobs.
“The Action Plan is a whole-of-Government initiative, which has delivered strong and positive results over the past 2 years. The 2014 Plan will build on what we have delivered so far, and make a further big difference in the delivery of jobs and recovery” Minister Hogan added.
Minister Hogan stressed the importance of the role of local authorities in supporting economic development and recovery at local level. “Local authorities are the leaders of their communities, and are important engines to support local entrepreneurship and economic development” he said. “I look forward to the establishment, in April 2014, of Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) to provide strengthened support to micro-enterprises through local authorities”, adding that “the placement of LEOs in local authorities reflects their delivery of a wide range of economic initiatives and their capacity to respond to national enterprise and employment initiatives by providing local support”, he said.
Minister for Housing and Planning, Jan O’Sullivan, TD, said “capital investment in housing initiatives will contribute to job growth in the important construction sector in 2014. This year more than €200m in housing investment will produce an important social dividend and support job growth in the construction sector.
“Among the key investments will be:
• A new €65m local authority house building programme.
• A €35m investment for housing for people with a special needs.
• A major energy efficiency programme with €30m spent on local authority housing stock
• €10m special resolution fund for unfinished housing estates.
• €15m fund to bring long-term vacant public houses back into beneficial use in 2014.
• €70m forRegeneration projects in Limerick, Dublin, Cork, Dundalk, Tralee and Sligo.
“We need to renew our construction sector so it can contribute to sustainable economic growth and recovery and to job creation, helping the significant number of those unemployed who previously worked in the sector back into jobs”, Minister Hogan emphasised, adding that “we will not repeat the mistakes of the past – development must be related to real measured needs and planned in a sustainable manner, and not driven by the search for speculative gain, and the public must have confidence that standards in the sector are high and that there is accountability if things go wrong”.
Ministers Hogan & O’Sullivan concluded “We will both be contributing to a new Strategy for the construction sector to address some of the key challenges it faces, including developing a strategic approach to housing supply, identifying and implementing further improvements in the planning process to facilitate appropriate development, and working to improve financing options for development and mortgage provision”.