A £5 billion national action programme aimed at reducing the unemployment rate to 5 per cent by the year 2003 has been announced by the Government. The rate at the moment stands at 9.4 per cent.
The Employment Action Plan, unveiled by the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, yesterday involves an annual spending of £1 billion which will come from existing Exchequer funding. Over half of this will go on educational and training initiatives.
The plan has been submitted to the EU Commission for consideration by the heads of government at the British presidency summit in Cardiff in mid-June.
The key objective of the strategy is to reduce unemployment to 7 per cent by 2000. Ms Harney said this was just a "staging post" in her ambition to cut joblessness to 5 per cent within four to five years. To reach the 7 per cent target, some 120,000 new jobs would have to be created within the next 21/2 years; this would reduce unemployment to just over 100,000.
With 234,700 people on the live register, it is proposed that over £1 billion be spent this year on measures to get people back into the labour market. However, Fine Gael, Labour and Democratic Left criticised the lack of detail in the plan. The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, echoed the view of Opposition colleagues by stating it contained "nothing new".
Mr Tommy Broughan, Labour's spokesman on enterprise, trade and employment, said the plan contained no targets for reducing the long-term unemployment rate and was a conglomeration of ideas already set out in a variety of more elaborate and focused papers published by the last government.
Democratic Left's spokesman, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said it was "largely a rehash of existing schemes and programmes while setting out explicit new targets".
But, the Tanaiste maintained that she has adopted "a different approach than in the past" with the new direction concentrating on prevention rather than cure. The strategy, which will form part of the overall EU drive against unemployment, is divided into four main "pillars".
The first proposes tackling youth unemployment and preventing long-term joblessness. FAS and local employment services will be mandated to contact each person, aged under 25, who has been on the live register for more than six months "with a view to offering them a job or other employment support".
The proposed preventative strategy is designed to stop young people from drifting into a life on the dole. This will be extended "on a phased basis" to all over 25s who have been on the live register for 12 months.
The cost and administrative burden for small- to medium-size enterprises when they hire additional workers is also to be addressed by implementing existing measures, particularly the reduction of Corporation Tax to 12.5 per cent as soon as possible.
The plan also intends to target early school-leavers and unemployment black-spots as well as rural poverty. Two-out-of-10 children are estimated to drop out of school prematurely and the plan envisages a drop-out rate of one-in-10 within three years by putting money into schools in disadvantaged areas.
Announcing the plan, Ms Harney said the Government will be pursuing clearly defined goals.
"Clearly, the policies reflected in our Action Plan on Employment form a strategic framework aimed at increasing sustainable employment and bringing back into the mainstream of the labour market those who are currently excluded," she added.
Other key elements in the plan include measures to boost the flexibility of businesses and their employees; to strengthen equal opportunity policies; to develop entrepreneurship and to promote better provision of child-care facilities. Disabled people should also get greater access to work.