asked the Minister for Finance if he has any proposals to reduce the number on the unemployment register.
Written Answers. - Unemployment Reduction Proposals.
289.
The Government will continue to promote policies which will result in additional jobs, both for new entrants to the labour force and for those on the Live Register. With this objective in mind the Government announced, on 31 October last, the immediate implementation of a wide range of measures in order to achieve a net improvement in the job situation.
The Government are intensifying and expanding their employment policies through the Investment Plan 1981. The implementation of the plan will result directly in higher employment of about 10,000, mainly in building and construction, telecommunications and energy. These jobs are additional to those directly arising in manufacturing and indirectly in the services sector as a result of investment by the industrial promotion agencies.
Among other measures the change in corporation tax payable by manufacturing firms, which is now being fixed at 10 per cent, should also benefit employment. It will provide a significant incentive to firms trading on the home market and will encourage a greater degree of industrial linkage in the domestic economy.