Economic growth forecast set for upgrade

The Government could upgrade economic growth projections for next year with ambitions now to exceed initial jobs targets.

Richard Bruton, the jobs minister, said the Coalition would be reviewing its predicted growth rate of 2% for 2014 soon and there was “optimism” about the economy in the workplace.

His comments came as it was announced that up to 110 jobs will be created over the next year at Sláinte Healthcare in engineering, testing, and finance among other areas, as well as a separate 30 jobs at a media firm called Sheology.

Sláinte provides software solutions to health facilities to boost care and cut costs.

Their system allows hospitals to replace paper patient charts with electronic versions. It is being piloted in Cork University Hospital.

Mr Bruton and Health Minister James Reilly both announced the jobs as they called for other firms to come forward with ideas that will benefit patients.

Mr Bruton said Sláinte Healthcare was one of the six firms involved in the Health Innovation Hub (HIH), a joint initiative by the two departments.

He said the plan is for all departments and agencies to join forces to create jobs.

HIH was established under the action plan for jobs to support the development and advancement of healthcare innovation in Ireland.

Sláinte Healthcare employs people in Ireland, the Middle East, Australia, and the UK.

Chief executive Andrew Murphy said: “Now over €1bn worth of claims are processed annually through our systems, greatly reducing transaction costs for all parties.”

Mr Bruton said the Government had made progress in its target of creating 100,000 jobs by 2016. He also predicted a target of 2m jobs in 2020 — as cited by Taoiseach Enda Kenny in his address at the weekend — could be exceeded. The figure was already flagged in last year’s action plan for jobs.

“Clearly, our ambition is to go well beyond this. If we can continue to work the sort of programme and cooperation that we’ve had right across Government to drive change and reform, I believe we can comfortably exceed those targets and that’s our ambition.”

Asked about Ibec’s new growth predictions of 2.8% next year compared to the Coalition’s target of 2% in the budget, he said the Government had its own targets and they would be reviewed in due course.

“We’re confident that the way the economy is running that a lot of targets we have set for employment can be delivered next year.”

The news comes as company digital media firm Sheology announced 30 new jobs as part of an extension over the next three years.