The Government’s initiative on jobs is to be announced in the Dáil next Tuesday, Taoiseach Enda Kenny confirmed today.
Mr Kenny told the House this afternoon that Minister for Finance Michael Noonan would give the full details of the initiative which would then be discussed by TDs.
“I stress the fact…I make no bones about this…it is not going to sort out Ireland’s unemployment problem overnight,” he told the Dáil, which resumed today after a two-week Easter break.
Mr Kenny said the intention, within existing constraints, was to provide an injection into the economy which would stimulate growth, jobs and opportunities.
Mr Kenny said the initiative would be fiscally neutral and he would point out how adjustments and payments would be made.
“I do hope, in the debate that will ensue, people will live in the world of reality and not in theory as to what we can actually do,” the Taoiseach added.
The jobs initiative, which was discussed at this morning’s Cabinet meeting, contains a range of measures. These are expected to include scrapping the controversial travel tax for air passengers introduced in the October 2009 budget.
Originally set at €10, the levy was cut to €3 in the last budget. A commitment to scrap it, subject to a deal with airlines to reopen closed routes, was contained in the programme for government.
Mr Kenny will fly to New York tonight to tell Wall Street investors, financial journalists and the Irish-American business community that “Ireland is open for business”.
He will address1,200 guests at the American Ireland Fund charity dinner on Thursday night where the boxer Muhammad Ali, who has an ancestral connection with Ennis, Co Clare, will receive an award for humanitarian work.
During his brief visit Mr Kenny will press his pro-investment message home on the weekly television programme Out of Ireland, which is broadcast throughout the US.