THE IRISH diaspora will be asked to participate in a novel job creation initiative that will involve financial rewards for people who come up with successful ideas, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has revealed.
Mr Kenny, who is in New York today for a series of meetings on Wall Street designed to attract investment, believes the 80 million-strong Irish diaspora can also be harnessed to bring jobs to the country.
The scheme, which will be announced as part of next week’s jobs initiative, will involve a finder’s fee of €3,000 for every job that results from the project.
“If jobs are created in Ireland, and are still in existence two years on, the finder or initiator will be given a fee or a reward by the Government.
“It is a different version of ask not what your country can do for you. You pin-point this for the country and the country is going to respond,” said Mr Kenny in an interview with The Irish Times.
The project will be administered by private sector interests and the IDA. Jobs created under the scheme that are still in existence after two years will qualify for the €3,000 payment.
The scheme is aimed at tapping the potential of the small and medium enterprises around the world, particularly in the United States. Mr Kenny expressed strong optimism that Ireland is capable of rising to the enormous scale of the challenge now facing it.
“The scale of what we face is unprecedented, but that is also the challenge. While the challenge is enormous the opportunity to get so many things right is brilliant,” said Mr Kenny.
He said that people up and down the country had been giving him this simple message: “Sort it out. No matter how difficult it is we want to be able to see the sunlight on the far shore.” He added that people were yearning for leadership from a government that could make decisions and get on with the job of dealing with the crisis.
“They are concerned about their families and their children and the next generation. Despite the crippling economic burden that the people are carrying there is a real sense of courage and hope.”
Mr Kenny said he was happy with the exchequer returns for the first four months of the year published yesterday which showed all tax revenues running ahead of expectations.
Tax revenues in the year to April were €108 million, or 1.1 per cent higher than expected in budget 2011. This compared with a 1.8 per cent shortfall in the first three months of the year. Income tax receipts were 1.5 per cent ahead of target and excise duties and corporation tax were also better than expected.
The Taoiseach said his message to the business people he was going to meet in New York was that Ireland had a new Government with a difference set of priorities.
“The 12.5 per cent corporation tax rate remains. We want to build on the traditional links between Ireland and the states. We want to tell the American people and the Irish-American people that we wholeheartedly welcome the visit of President Obama here to Ireland.” He also expressed delight that Queen Elizabeth had accepted the invitation of President McAleese to pay a state visit to this country.
“This is an occasion where the people of Ireland can turn out and give a royal welcome to her majesty and a real Irish céad míle fáilte to President Obama,” he added.
On the issue of judges’ pensions the Taoiseach confirmed that Chief Justice John Murray had raised the issue with him during a recent meeting. Mr Kenny emphasised that the Chief Justice had not referred to his own pension situation but had given some examples of the implications of the new arrangements.
The Taoiseach said his response to any request for the exemption of judges from the pension arrangements announced in the last budget was “absolutely not.”
