Jobs initiative - A first step on a long, hard road

EVERY day that passes the scale of the economic challenge facing us becomes, if you are the kind to fret, ever more unsettling.

Sadly and frustratingly yesterday’s Government jobs initiative can only do so much to assuage those concerns or reverse deeply worrying unemployment figures that would, at nearly 450,000, be even more startling if not for the safety valve of emigration.

For a short while there was a sense of expectation swirling around yesterday’s announcement that was unrealistic. As Micheál Martin pointed out the wishful thinking that so often befuddles us was encouraged by Fine Gael’s pre-election promises to create 100,000 jobs. Even then — and how long ago all that seems already — that promise seemed an impossible overreach. It is even more sharply undermined as the budget for this initiative — €500 million — seems unequal to the task but the sober reality is that’s all that’s available. That it is funded in part through the imposition of a levy on private pension funds will leave a bitter taste amongst those trying to rebuild devastated retirement savings.

It is also diminished by the fact that so much of the focus is on essential training rather than on immediately creating real jobs. This path has been well and truly trodden and promises on jobs that involve training schemes attract a certain degree of scepticism.

There is also the terrible irony facing every minister. As they try to make savings in their own departments which will inevitably lead to job cuts through natural wastage or some form of redundancies they must also do all they can to create jobs in the wider economy. How dispiriting that must be.

Just as High Court judge Mr Justice Peter Kelly yesterday expressed the frustration of very many when he expressed unhappiness at the pace of the investigation into the banks, many legitimate workers, self-employed people and small companies are frustrated at the growth in the black economy.

This may be inevitable at a time of high unemployment but it is frustrating that it, and the welfare fraud it facilitates, are not tackled more rigorously. It may seem cold but the situation where an unemployed family breadwinner can refuse a job unless it pays more than €35,000 a year must be reviewed, the country simply cannot afford that level of support.

Of course it’s much easier to criticise this initiative than it is to offer a viable alternative. Just as it is with the banks, the property market and the prospect of a real calamity unravelling as Greece struggles to stay afloat there is no magic wand. There is no off-the-shelf solution to our difficulties, especially in an economy where so many are already struggling to make ends meet. To imagine otherwise is unfair to ourselves and our Government.

The reality is that governments are not the best organisations at creating jobs. They can only create conditions conducive to creating or sustaining jobs. Tweaking VAT and PRSI rates and cutting taxes on air travel are a great help but they are hardly game changers. Unemployment, especially long-term unemployment, is one of the greatest threats facing this society and anything that tackles it must be embraced enthusiastically. Yesterday’s announcement was the first step on what seems like a long road, but it is a road that has an end.