Action Plan for Jobs - 2012

There is no greater challenge facing Ireland than getting our people back to work. There have

been over 300,000 job losses since a flawed economic model collapsed in 2008 and there are

more than 315,000 people unemployed, half of them for more than a year.

Governments don't create jobs, successful businesses and entrepreneurs do. But this truth

does not remove the need, the absolute obligation, for Government and all sectors of our

society to respond to the jobs crisis facing our country.

To that end the Taoiseach has set a Government ambition for Ireland to be the best small

country in the world in which to do business by the centenary of the 1916 Rising. This is an

ambitious goal but it is an achievable one. Becoming the best small country in the world in

which to do business will require a deep transformation of Government and of all sectors of

our society. But that is exactly where we need to be as a society and as an economy.

We need to compete better internationally, and we can.

We need to sell more of our products and services to new markets, and we can do that.  We need to create a vibrant environment

where new enterprise can flourish, and we can do that too. And we need to systematically

rebuild our economy, brick by brick, so that we can plan for a sustainable and growing

economy that will provide jobs and opportunities for our children to aspire to. We can, and we

must, do that.

Governmnet Action Plan for Jobs can be downloaded below