The Government’s latest action plan has jobs for everyone

THE three Cabinet members had jobs coming out their ears at yesterday’s launch.

The word jobs was underlined in the glossy ‘Action Plan for Jobs’ document. Enda Kenny fell to patronising when he declared: “A job can transform a life”. He spoke about “real jobs”, presumably as opposed to makey up ones. And he mentioned “high end jobs”, which sound a lot better than “dead end jobs”.

“Jobs are central to recovery,” he said, which is true and as obvious as the nose on the average face.

“We have to create jobs,” said Eamon Gilmore. Richard Bruton liberally sprinkled his address with the same word, in the manner that they all used the word “change” in last year’s general election.

“Jobs” has become the buzz word de jour for the current government. If you can’t do anything about spiralling unemployment, talk about jobs until the public think you’re obsessed with the subject.

Yesterday was the fourth time since ascending to high office that the Government made a song and dance about creating jobs. There is no argument but that unemployment is the biggest problem in the current economic malaise. There is no argument but that in terms of developed economies, this country has one of the worst records of unemployment over the last eighty years.

Tackling this is one of the Government’s biggest challenges, but actually getting results is going to be extremely difficult.

As such, the Government is reduced to spinning, recycling and, to be fair, introducing a few measures that appear sensible, albeit ones which should be part of any government’s programme.

A total of 270 measures to “create” 100,000 jobs were announced yesterday, “one for every working day of the year,” according to Bruton. Numbers are very important in the business of spin. How anybody could credibly claim that these measures will knock 100,000 people off the dole beggars belief. But then the Government parties did claim that they would create 100,000 jobs so you could say that they are keeping an election promise, although it’s on the never never.

Creating a section for export firms in Enterprise Ireland is a good idea. Setting up a development capital fund to encourage investment in new companies also makes sense. But these and other measures have been mentioned before, and repackaging them amounts to little more than spin.

Identifying “sectors of the future” such as cloud computing makes sense, but doing so is hardly the stuff of rocket science.

Then there is the serious spin. The main document was complimented by a table of action, which set out all the things to do done. Here’s one example, selected at random, on page 32.

“Roll out a schedule of sector specific Trade Missions and market evaluation missioners that reflect the priority markets identified in the trade strategy as well as firms’ interest and stage of development, aiming for at least 15 ministerial-led missions.”

In other words, let’s make a point of making 15 trade missions this year along the lines on which trade missions have been conducted since the time of Lemass.

Kenny repeatedly made the point that this plan, unlike most reports commissioned by government, would not gather dust, but would be about action. As such, he will demand quarterly reports to ensure that everything is going according to the plan. And if it isn’t, there may be hell to pay.

This sounds eerily like his “score-card” for ministers, which he announced last year. None of the ministers were reported to be quaking in their boots, and ministers and civil servants alike can rest assured that the quarterly reports will be treated as little more than an opportunity for some creative spin.

What yesterday’s launch did demonstrate is that at least the Government is trying to tackle probably the most intractable issue facing the country. Bruton, in particular, seemed to be approaching this problem with enthusiasm. How successful the strategy can be is another matter.

Claims that the measures announced in the “action plan” will create up to 100,000 jobs is more than a little daft.

External forces, more than all these measures, will determine how much employment can be created.

Strategies concerning the long-term development of education and sectors like agri-food and tourism are already in place. Beyond that, much of this action plan is about spin, repackaging, and above all, hoping for the best.