Ictu calls for national jobs plan

The development of a national emergency plan on jobs is the “only sustainable way” to tackle the economic crisis and drive recovery, Irish Congress of Trade Unions general secretary David Begg said today.

At an ICTU jobs summit in Dublin, Mr Begg said challenged the Government to apply "the same vigour and ingenuity" to job creation as it had to saving banks and cutting spending.

He said the unemployment figure of over 400,000 was the root of the current fiscal crisis and that by tackling the jobs' issue the Government would lay the foundations for economic recovery.

Rory O'Donnell, director of the National Economic and Social Council, told the summit the solution to Ireland's economic difficulties could come from combining ideas and action at three levels.

Firstly, he said, a vision of the kind of society and economy that Ireland wishes to become in the decades ahead needed to be found. Secondly, knowledge and ideas on key aspects of economic and social development should be forwarded.

Finally, there needed to be practical policy development, compromise and implementation, based on the experience and capabilities of a wide range of people.

Siptu president Jack O'Connor said recovery should be centred on a national agreement that would extend beyond the Government's proposed timeline by three years. This, he said, would serve as a sign of Ireland's capacity to overcome its economic difficulties.

Mr O'Connor said both Government and unions plans for recovery would involve taking a gamble and that the two sides should meet somewhere in the middle to take an each way bet.