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Check Against Delivery

Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen.

Thank you for your attendance today.

Today we are publishing the second Quarterly Report on our

.

The Action Plan is a central element in a series of policies implemented in the last year, in response to Ireland’s greatest challenge: getting Ireland working again.

In our first 100 days, we launched our Jobs Initiative.

This cut tax on labour-intensive services, introduced new internship and training schemes.

Budget 2012 saw a series of new measures to promote jobs and investment.

As we have placed a priority on making work pay we did not increase income tax.

There must always be a financial incentive in doing a day’s work.

Our banks are in the process of major restructuring which will lead to a more normal credit environment.

And

, our comprehensive labour market activation strategy, is overhauling the way in which we support job seekers back into the work place.

Earlier this week, we announced our intention to progress new off balance sheet investment into new capital projects.

All of this is a demonstration of our commitment to our number one priority of tackling unemployment. We are all very aware that unemployment remains far too high.

But I believe we are on the right path. I welcome the National Competitiveness Council Report today which indicates the degree of stabilisation within the economy. We need to build on this stable environment with pro-growth and pro-job policies to make a real and tangible difference to Ireland’s job seekers.

As I said the

is central to those efforts, and

I promised to ensure that Government would work hard to deliver on its ambition.

In the first quarter of the year we delivered 96%of the scheduled actions.  All but three job-supporting measures due in Q1 were delivered by the end of March. Today’s report confirms that those three Q1 measures have now been completed.

Turning to quarter two, the document we are publishing today reports on progress to the end of June. In Q2, Departments and Agencies were to deliver 77 measures.

According to the Report, 72 of those 77 measures due in Q2 have been delivered on schedule, giving a completion rate of over 93%.

Some of the highlights achieved in Q2 include:

• Launching the €2 million clustering programme to encourage groups of businesses to collaborate, improve competitive advantage, and create jobs;
• Passing the Credit Guarantee Bill;
• Identifying Departments and projects for the new Procuring Innovation Initiative;
• Publishing the draft strategy to promote employment, and support local enterprise by Local Government;
• Setting new targets for industry participation and take‐up of publicly‐funded research;
• Establishing the Manufacturing Development Forum progress a transformation agenda; and
• Progressing a National Strategy for the Construction Sector outlining the opportunities, challenges and actions needed to realise the potential of the sector.

Obviously we are dissatisfied that a small number of measures were not progressed on schedule. I expect significant progress to be made now and outstanding measures will be completed as quickly as possible.

Minimising the cost of doing business is paramount. It has been evident for some time that there is a need to update the system of

for Local Authority rates.

Central to this is the introduction of amending legislation to the Valuation Act 2001 which governs the valuation process.

I understand the amending legislation has been drafted and will be submitted to Government for approval next week.

Setting out a clear statement on Government policy for the waste industry is required for the sector and for businesses generally as to facilitate future business planning.

In this regard, the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government is in the final stages of developing a

.

This will provide for the development of a sustainable waste management approach to deliver improved environmental performance, quality, and cost effectiveness. The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government will submit the new policy for approval by Government this month.

We are all aware that the provision of

is absolutely key to improving our national competitiveness and our investment offering.

The report of the Next Generation Broadband Taskforce was published in May and a National Broadband Plan should be submitted to Government soon for its consideration.

The plan, when published, will set targets for advanced broadband deployment and the measures that will be pursued to achieve these targets.

Finally, access to finance remains a crucial concern for Irish SMEs. Over €90 million in additional lending to 5,500 micro-enterprises will be made available under the

.

This is expected to support 7,700 jobs over 10 years. While there is ongoing engagement with the European Investment Fund in relation to seeking the guarantee facility, a formal application to the EIF could not be made until legislation was enacted. This legislation has just passed through the Oireachtas this month so these Q2 measures can now proceed immediately. 

Even though today’s Report shows continuing progress, the

will be judged on its impacts, not the completion rate achieved by Government.

In this context, I am encouraged by the impacts which are evident and linked to the implementation of measures in Quarter 1 under the Plan.

• 15 major multinational project  announcements in Q1 with associated jobs for Dublin, Limerick, Mayo, Sligo, Cork, Louth and Kildare;
• 200 companies attending Export Awareness events around the country;
• 330 employers awarded Employer PRSI exemptions in respect of over 460 employees in Q1;
• 30,000 visits to the Connect Ireland website, under the Government’s Succeed in Ireland jobs finder’s fee scheme and the first new announcement of a new company due to establish its European HQ in Carlow with 30 skilled jobs;
• 6,000 additional free part-time higher education places for unemployed people rolled-out under the Springboard programme;
• Multi-million euro contracts signed by Irish firms with international customers  on foot of trade missions undertaken in Q1 to the US, China, Finland, Sweden, Turkey, UK and Russia; and
• Business Development Managers appointed to 37 Community Enterprise Centres across the country as part of a €2 million programme aimed at protecting and growing businesses in the community.

These are welcome examples of the first impacts seen from steps taken under the Action Plan, but we know that much more work remains before we get employment levels back to acceptable levels.

The continuing scale of the challenge is obvious.  We are in the early months of a multi-year process which aims to create the environment where the number of people at work will increase by 100,000 net, to 1.9 million, by 2016.

Ultimately, we want to see that figure reach 2 million people by 2020.

The Action Plan will be judged on its ability to foster increased job retention and job creation.

We are tackling the unemployment challenge head on.

We welcome the progress made but refuse to get complacent, as job creation remains at the top of our agenda.

Government Press Office,

, Ph: 01 6194098