IDA tries to quell jobs confusion

IDA IRELAND has moved to quell confusion over job creation numbers, reiterating that its previously stated target of 105,000 new jobs by 2014, approximately 20,000 per year, remains the benchmark.

The inward investment agency’s chief executive, Barry O’Leary, said yesterday that the aforementioned target (set out in the body’s previously published Horizon 2020 report) “is still the case” and refuted claims of an additional 70,000 jobs to that total, made by Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation Batt O’Keeffe in a media interview.

The confusion gave opposition parties ample ammunition yesterday. Fine Gael’s spokesperson on Enterprise, Jobs and Economic Planning, Richard Bruton, accused the minister of making up job creation targets as he goes along, adding: “In his usual fashion, Minister O’Keeffe has only added to the confusion surrounding the Government’s policy on job creation. He now appears to be setting jobs targets which are disputed by his own state agencies.”