Ruth Coppinger
Question:17. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will report on the progress of the Action Plan for Jobs 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29910/14]
View answerThursday, 10 July 2014
Questions (17)
Written answers
The Action Plan for Jobs is underpinned by a rigorous monitoring mechanism and by the publication of quarterly Progress Reports on the implementation of individual actions. This year’s Action Plan contains 385 actions to be delivered across all Government Departments and over 40 public bodies. Most of these actions have interim quarterly milestones to be achieved as part of the delivery of the headline action. The interim measures are set out in a series of tables which were published in parallel with the Action Plan for Jobs last February.
Progress Reports on the quarterly milestones are compiled centrally by the Department of An Taoiseach and are published on the Action Plan for Jobs page on my Department’s website, www.djei.ie. The Progress Report for the first Quarter of 2014 under the Action Plan for Jobs showed that 97 of the 103 measures to be delivered in Quarter 1 were implemented on schedule, giving a 94% completion rate. The Progress Report for the second Quarter is currently being compiled by the Department of An Taoiseach and should be published during July.
Since the start of the Action Plan for Jobs process in 2012, over 600 actions, containing over 1,100 individual quarterly measures, have been delivered across all Departments and a wide range of public bodies. The overarching objective of all of these actions is to improve the operating environment for businesses in order to support job creation. The most recent Quarterly National Household Survey published by the Central Statistics Office, for Quarter 1 2014, showed that the number of people in employment increased by over 63,000 since the Action Plan for Jobs process began. Live Register figures published last week show that the number of people signing on the Register continues to decrease and is at its lowest level since April 2009.
Nonetheless, our unemployment rate is still too high and we must maintain our focus on creating a supportive environment for employment growth through the continued delivery of the Action Plan for Jobs.