Radical changes to the way the government and business interact with each other, resulting in a major boost to the country's workforce within the next eight years, have been pledged by the government through its new Action Plan on Jobs announced with much fanfare this week.
Among the changes envisaged are the restructuring the country's enterprise agencies, assisting small companies to win significant contracts, providing credit to small and medium-sized firms, improving competitiveness and attracting more international investment to Ireland.
The plan contains over 270 actions which the government said will be implemented this year, and the programme envisages the creation of 100,000 jobs by 2016 and 200,000 by 2020. It is nothing if not ambitious. Critics have declared that the proposals offer little new. The small firms association, ISME, said there was very little that was new or innovative and it believed the plan would have a minimal effect on immediate job creation.
The biggest shake-up is to the county and city enterprise boards which are to be dissolved and amalgamated into a new unit operated by Enterprise Ireland which will be given the job of providing advice to local authorities. The enterprise boards will be replaced with local offices operating from council headquarters.
Merging the country's 35 boards with the councils is expected to save between €500,000 and €2m a year and these new Local Enterprise Offices (or LEOs) will serve as 'one-stop shops', helping small businesses.
Those tasked with enterprise will also face quarterly report cards as part of the government's plans. Each of the 15 government departments and 36 State agencies involved will be subject to regular reviews to identify failings and will have to work to quickly resolve them, the Taoiseach said.
At the heart of the plan is the inherent wish of Irish people to work for a living and make a contribution to wider society. "A job can transform a life," said Mr Kenny. "It can restore missing self-respect and dignity. It can provide hope and direction to so many young people looking to make their mark. It's about people's innate desire to work for their living, to look after their families, and to contribute to their country."
It's certainly a noble aspiration and one that will touch a deep chord with so many of the 14.2 per cent of Ireland's workforce who find themselves unemployed. There is also no denying the enthusiasm of Mr Kenny for the job at hand and to be the Taoiseach who leads Ireland back to economic sovereignty and out of the clutches of the troika within the next few years. But what most people - particularly the large number of under-25s without a job and those who will be leaving colleges and universities in the next two to three years - will want to know is: can it really work?
The country relies increasingly on the strengths of its exports as its growth engine but the eurozone crisis, in particular, is weighing on the previously stellar performance of this sector. The concern for most Irish businesses and their employees who depend on the domestic economy for their livelihood is what can this ambitious new plan for jobs do to help struggling SMEs and can it help revive flagging consumer demand which is crucial to our country's recovery? That will be the real acid test of this blueprint.
Increased mentoring of SMEs by business leaders and multinationals, getting more small companies involved in research and development and incentivising members of the diaspora and other from oversas to come and create jobs in Ireland all sounds great on paper, but can it truly deliver extra jobs in the numbers the government expects?
It should be remembered that while foreign direct investment (FDI) is a crucially important part of the bedrock of Ireland's present and future economic strategy, it should not be forgotten that over 70 per cent of Ireland's workforce is employed is in small and medium-sized enterprises in towns and villages the length and breadth of the country. And many of these companies are struggling to keep their heads above water in this recession, while many others are among the thousands which have been forced to close since the recession began to bite in 2008.
Growing the economy while being pegged back by a painful austerity programme to a point where employment levels are back at the two million level by 2020 looks like a big ask. There is no significant budget attached to the plan and there are no stated penalties for ministers who fail to deliver on their pledges, despite promises to be accountable. But the proposals are at least aimed in the right direction - to create the conditions that will allow businesses to develop and grow.
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