asked the Minister for Industry, Trade, Commerce and Tourism in view of the substantial national resources allocated to the jobcreating activities of the various State agencies, if he considers it is necessary to evaluate accurately the cost of creating a job so as to ascertain that the State receives the best return possible on its investment; and if he will take steps to have an accurate calculation made within his Department.
Written Answers. - Job Creation Evaluation.
48.
I share the Deputy's concern that we should accurately evaluate the cost of creating a job in manufacturing industry and I am happy to inform him that my Department, in consultation with the management committee on industrial policy, are drawing up a uniform basis for computing cost per job, which, I expect, will be agreed within the next six weeks. When drawing up cost per job figures care must be taken to define what precisely is being measured. A number of first time jobs created in any year arise from grant payments in previous years. Similarly grant payments made in any one year will give rise to new first time jobs in succeeding years.
It might not be prudent to pre-determine a cost per direct job above which one would not go in supporting a project. There is another factor, namely, the indirect employment associated with the project, arising from the further investment of the value added generated by the sourcing of raw material requirements in Ireland, which must be taken into account. Every effort must, of course, also be made to quantify such indirect jobs although the figures will be somewhat more difficult to determine.
The overall targets set for job creation in the White Paper on Industrial Policy is the growth of manufacturing employment of between 3,000 and 6,000 jobs per year. This is a very ambitious target in the light of past trends here and in other countries. All Government agencies concerned with manufacturing, whether in the investment, export or technical support areas, are being required to use their resources in such a way as to jointly assure the achievement of these targets over the ten year period of application of the White Paper.