Employment targets - Investment at home will boost jobs

THE Government has set a new target of 2018 to return Ireland to full employment. It is an ambitious target, to say the least, as it brings it forward by two years from a previous deadline.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said 40,000 jobs would be created this year and unemployment would fall below 10% into single figures. “Job creation will be the number one priority in 2015,” he said at a press conference yesterday.

Not before time. Despite the so-called ‘green shoots’ emerging over the past two years, economic improvements have not filtered down to those on the dole.