A NUMBER of submissions have been made to Government ahead of the publication next week of a jobs initiative by Minister for Finance Michael Noonan.
The employers’ lobby group Ibec has called for “radical and decisive steps” to tackle unemployment and to boost confidence in the economy.
The group, which represents 7,000 Irish businesses, says major reform of State employment services and the welfare system is needed and it calls for a drive to get graduates and the unemployed into work.
Among its key recommendations, Ibec wants a new national graduate internship programme and a work placement programme for the unemployed.
It says new third-level courses should be introduced to help move people with construction-related skills into new areas of employment. It also believes a major overhaul of the wage rules that set minimum terms and conditions in many sectors are needed.
It is calling on the Government to introduce a “new and substantial loan guarantee scheme” for small and medium-sized enterprises and wants no further reduction in the public capital investment programme.
“We desperately need a new approach to job creation,” the umbrella group’s director general Danny McCoy said.
“We have been in crisis management mode for far too long; now is the time to take positive steps to get the economy back on track. Business will provide the job opportunities that the country so desperately needs, but Government must ensure the conditions are right,” he added.
In its submission, the Irish Tax Institute said the key to job creation was to help Irish businesses gain access to private sector capital.
The institute said Irish pension funds should be enabled and possibly even required to invest some of their assets in established unquoted medium and large Irish companies. Additional funds raised in this way could be used to enable the target group to continue or expand their operations, the institute said.
It also suggested that individuals be encouraged, through tax incentives, to invest in active Irish businesses, and that such an incentive be limited to investment in SMEs which are actively trading and where potential for job creation is demonstrated.
It has also called on the Government to introduce a form of social welfare assistance for employers to encourage recruitment from the Live Register.
Under the scheme, an employer who recruited someone from the register could claim 50 per cent of that person’s social welfare payment for a year. The new job would have to be full time.
