Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 8 Jul 1992

Vol. 422 No. 4

Written Answers. - Employment Policy.

Bernard J. Durkan

Question:

106 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Finance if in view of the reply to Parliamentary Question No. 6 of 9 June 1992, he will outline the plans, if any, he has to improve the employment situation in this country; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

Minister for Finance (Mr. B. Ahern):

I refer the Deputy to my reply to a parliamentary question from Deputy Spring on 24 March 1992, (Official Report columns 1147 and 1148) in which I said:

The broad thrust of the Government's strategy for expanding economic activity and employment is as set out successively in theProgramme for National Recovery, the Programme for Government and the Programme for Economic and Social Progress. That strategy is working. It has restored employment growth and is set, as international activity picks up, to underpin further expansion of sustainable jobs. The Government acknowledges, however, that even more rapid economic progress, and employment growth, is required having regard to prevailing high levels of unemployment and prospective increases in demand for jobs. In this context it has taken a variety of initiatives, including the Industrial Policy Review Group, the Task Force on Employment and the Tourism Task Force.

Since then, to further the objective of employment growth, the Joint Committee on Employment has been established on the initiative of the Government,inter alia“to examine and make recommendations on all aspects of social policy which have a bearing on employment creation”; and the Enterprise Trust, which is a key part of the employers' input to the area-based response to long term unemployment under the Programme for Economic and Social Progress, has been launched by the Taoiseach.