THE OBJECTIVE of the Government is to ensure that anybody currently in long-term unemployment is in a job by the end of the Coalition’s term, according to Taoiseach Enda Kenny.
He said unemployment remained the central focus of all the Government’s efforts and the answer to the country’s problems lay in greater employment and new job opportunities.
“The changes being made by Government, both in structure and by decision are designed to rectify the problem in our public finances and provide focus . . . on the creation of jobs,” he told political correspondents in a Christmas interview.
The Taoiseach said that everywhere he went around the country he was enthused by the commitment of so many people to bring an end to recession and to look for opportunities where they could invest and create jobs.
“Time and again I go home absolutely invigorated by the scale of that commitment. The challenge of Government is to open the doors for that to actually happen. In so many places, small or large, I see examples of it every day.
“As I said at the beginning, the real impetus here has got to be about jobs and the delivery of jobs. I hope that by the end of this Government’s period that anybody who’s currently on long-term unemployment will be off long-term unemployment and will either be back in the world of work, or will have involved themselves in upskilling,” he said.
He said Minister for Enterprise, Innovation and Jobs Richard Bruton will present his jobs agenda next month. “That will involve the development of the Micro Finance Agency, which is a big issue for so many people in terms of access to credit. And also the guarantee on the partial loan credit scheme, because small and medium enterprises continuously say to me that they’re having difficulty in terms of access to credit.”
Mr Kenny said there would be discussions with the banks next month. The two pillar banks had already committed to new lending of €3 billion this year, €3.5 billion in 2012 and €4 billion in 2013.
“The stress tests that have already been carried out on our banks were sufficiently strong that even in regard to the meeting in Brussels they still measure up in terms of the extent of capital that they’ve got there.” Mr Kenny added that the focus of Government will be to make decisions designed to protect that and enhance the indigenous economy.
“There’s quite a deal of money out there that people are concerned about and not as keen to spend as you might like.” He said the impact of Government decisions on the hospitality sector had been quite significant. “Additions to that are decisions by Ryanair to bring in flights from Spain, France and Italy and Germany, to our core major European tourism potential for us.”