Job creation strategy - Plan lays out vision more than action

Considering the state of the economy, people could be forgiven for viewing the Government’s commitment to create 100,000 jobs by 2016 and 100,000 more by 2020 more as an ambitious vision than an action plan.

With 450,000 unemployed, and thousands seeking work abroad, people are hoping against hope that jobs will somehow be created. But the sheer scale of the grand design outlined in the four-year programme of the Fine Gael-Labour coalition is bound to be questioned by those made cynical by the failure of successive administrations to honour political promises.

Despite such negative sentiments, the publication of an action plan for jobs deserves to be welcomed. The challenge facing Government will be to convince the public of the merits of such a wide-ranging programme that includes 270 measures to be delivered this year alone, involving an input from 15 Government departments and 36 State agencies.

The key questions are: how tangible are these measures and how many initiatives have already been trotted out and now reappear in a new suit? Anyone who expected a realistic picture of Ireland’s future employment situation will be disappointed. More a virtual landscape, it is bristling with bullet points.

Perhaps the underlying philosophy was best summed up by Taoiseach Enda Kenny who said the plan was about finding smarter ways to help businesses, thereby cutting both costs and red tape, and making it cheaper and easier to do business here.

In a note of reality, Jobs and Enterprise Minister Richard Bruton conceded there are limits to what the Government can do in the current economic circumstances and the money to put flesh on the programme would have to come from existing budgets.

According to measures outlined in the document, properties held by NAMA will be made available at attractive rents. Loans to companies under a ‘micro finance scheme’ will be underwritten by the National Pension Reserve Fund. Enterprise Ireland will be beefed up. Quarterly progress reports will be published.

In reality, a government cannot create jobs, but it can generate an entrepreneurial culture and climate to help business to grow. With this in mind, more will be done to support indigenous companies and small and medium enterprises. The Government’s Economic Council will meet the banks to ensure they honour the promise to lend money to businesses struggling to find the cash they need to expand. Employers are hoping the plan will offer a joined-up approach to job creation. Trade unions see it as a welcome move to put jobs at the heart of things. But some economists warn it will be hard to create jobs while austerity programmes are crushing the man and woman in the street.

If this job creation commitment is to work, it is essential that Government leaders and the managers of departments and agencies of the State be held accountable. Otherwise, the strategy will be consigned to the status of a wish-list rather than an action plan.