Centralised control does not help jobseekers

The OECD yesterday published its review of the Government's set-piece Action Plan for Jobs strategy, which it launched at a briefing in the Department of Jobs, just down the corridor from the office of Minister Richard Bruton.

Yves Leterme, the softly-spoken deputy chief of the OECD, was never very likely to come to Dublin and harshly criticise the Minister in his own house.

And so it proved at the friendly launch of this supposed external review, which was stage managed by officials from the department whose actions were partly under the microscope.

But although Leterme was generally warm in his praise of the Minister's overall efforts, Bruton would do well not to ignore the OECD's warnings on the administration and monitoring of the plan.

Scorecard
The Government is, in effect, marking its own scorecard on the Action Plan for Jobs. As any golfer will tell you, that's not how it should be done. And for good reason.

The upcoming quarterly report on the plan, which is supposed to monitor the implementation of the plan’s actions, will say that more than 90 per cent of actions have been implemented since the first plan was launched more than two years ago.

That sort of strike rate sounds almost like the result of an election involving Vladimir Putin. Has the plan's implementation really been that effective? If so, it is a wonder that there are any unemployed people left at all.

Or is the level of supposed success more down to the fact that the Monitoring Committee is comprised of the four main government departments – those of the Taoiseach, Tánaiste, Jobs and Public Expenditure – that are most closely involved in setting policy for the plan?

Overall strategy for the plan is set by a cabinet sub-committee comprising Bruton, Enda Kenny, and other economic ministers including Michael Noonan and Brendan Howlin.

The OECD suggested that this level of centralised control should be adjusted, and that bodies representing different industries and sectors, and different regions of the country, should be brought into the tent of the administration process.

Highly centralised
"Ireland has a highly centralised governance structure, which may explain [the plan's] current emphasis on central institutions.

“However, the local and regional dimensions of job creation should not be underestimated,” the report said.

The Action Plan for Jobs is, the OECD acknowledges, a very worthy endeavour.

It should not be allowed to become bogged down in overly centralised, Dublin-centric and bureaucratic control.