THE GOVERNMENT HAS said it is delivering on commitments made under the Action Plan for Jobs with 96 per cent of planned measures implemented on time in 2012.
Releasing his progress report for the first three months of 2012, Jobs Minister Richard Bruton said that 80 of the 83 actions scheduled to start by March 31 were delivered.
Those initiatives include the launch of ‘Succeed in Ireland’ which hopes to create 5,000 jobs in five years and the establishment of the Potential Exporters Division at Enterprise Ireland.
Various funds were also set up, such as the €20 million Education and Training Fund and the Innovation Ireland Fund worth more than €60 million.
The PRSI exemption scheme has been extended and simplified, as promised, and the Finance Bill has been enacted, giving effect to several pro-jobs measures.
“This is just the first step in an annual plan to help rebuild our economy,” said Taoiseach Enda Kenny. “In the next three months we will build on actions rolled out to date and aim to deliver another 77 measures to support job creation with initiatives on business costs, broadband, procurement, red tape, industry-led innovation and much more.”
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore reiterated the line that there is “no magic bullet” to fix the current unemployment crisis, while Bruton said there was “no big bang” solution.
“What we have to do is keep our focus on the task at hand, and do the hard work, day by day, added Gilmore.
There were 83 actions identified for completion in Quarter 1 – of these 80 have been completed. It’s that kind of detailed work that we need to do, and which we have to drive ahead with, across government.
The three measures that have been delayed are the launch of a new Women in Business start-up drive, the cloud computing strategy for the public service and the support of industry-led clustering in key areas of export opportunity.
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