Peadar Tóibín
Question:179 Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Finance his assessment of the impact that the scaling back of growth figures for Europe will have on employment levels here. [35949/11]
View answerTuesday, 31 January 2012
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Written answers
Obviously as a small open economy whose recovery is being driven by exports, we will be affected by the soft patch that the European economy is currently going through, though competitiveness improvements evidenced in recent years will provide some support. I would also point out that as some of our exports are by their nature quite capital intensive, the impact on employment levels of a slowdown in export growth will be more muted than would otherwise be the case. It is also important to point out that a weakening of activity in our main trading partners is already factored into my Department's forecasts for economic growth and employment that underpin the Budget.
What I would stress is that this Government considers the labour market represents its biggest challenge and, accordingly, is giving top priority to job protection, job creation and supporting the unemployed. In this regard, my colleague the Minister for Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation will soon publish an Action Plan on Jobs.