The Cabinet yesterday heard from Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Peter Burke about the strong performance of the Irish jobs market. It was told that employment had reached a record level of 2.8 million last year and that the rate of employment increases here was four times the EU average.
This is all true, and the resilience of the Irish economy last year was impressive. Though as Burke’s colleagues could have gleaned this information from Central Statistics Office releases, perhaps the appearance of this on the Cabinet agenda was motivated by the provision of some positive publicity.
Governments will always try to claim the credit for strong employment creation and avoid the blame when jobs are lost. Such is politics. But there is a risk here of looking in the rear-view mirror. More recent indicators suggest a slowdown in jobs growth and a decline in employment in the tech sector. Clear risks also lie ahead from the threat of a transatlantic trade war.
Against this backdrop, Ireland needs to move faster to underpin the employment that is already there. The Cabinet also considered a ¤1 billion fund to accelerate housing provision and the establishment of the new Joint Utilities and Transport Clearing House, designed to better coordinate the delivery of infrastructure projects across the State
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While these are welcome, it is extraordinary that only now are real efforts being made to try to accelerate major projects vital to the State’s economic and social development. It was clear from early in the last coalition’s term that something had gone badly wrong with project delivery.Yet it has taken a year into this Coalition’s term for Ministers to get around to tackling this.
With significant global uncertainty, protecting jobs means advancing Ireland’s capacity in vital areas like water and energy, in turn allowing for more houses te be built. The Government seems to realise the scale of the problems, but its ability to deal with them remains in question.
