Speech by the Taoiseach- launch of Enterprise 2025

This plan is a blueprint on how to rebuild a sustainable economy, sector by sector. It marks a definitive end to the boom and bust cycle embraced by previous Governments.

This is a plan that will see Ireland evolve into an enterprise and export focused economy that can sustain a revived domestic sector.

It is a plan that will inform Government policy for a decade.

At the heart of this plan are jobs.

The whole point of building and protecting a sustainable economy is so that our people can have the opportunities to build their careers and lives in their own home country.
That those who left our shores in recent years can move back home and continue up the career ladder.

Our record on job creation is a positive one. 1,300 new jobs a week in 2015. Yesterday alone we welcomed 1,300 new jobs by Apple and Indeed.

But there are still too many people out of work.

This is why all of Government’s plans – from lowering taxes on workers to new investment for regional infrastructure – are all designed to get more people back into work.

With the addition of Enterprise 2025 as a guiding framework for new policies, we expect to be able to lower the unemployment rate down to 6% by 2020.

This will see an additional 220,000 new jobs throughout the country based on the latest job creation figures.

While recovery is underway, it is still fragile and can be undone with the wrong policies that will take the country in the wrong direction.

Our strategy is to keep the recovery going by building up all the sectors in the economy and to ensure that progress is balanced across the country.

For this reason we are making sure that all national and local agencies are using their strengths and local knowledge to build up new enterprises in each region.

To date we have launched the first 4 in a series of 8 Regional Action Plans for Jobs in the Midlands, South West, South East, and Mid West regions, as part of a €250 million regional jobs strategy.

I plan to launch the Action Plan for Jobs West this coming Monday.

With these plans in place, and in line with Enterprise 2025, we expect to see unemployment in all regions to be within 1% of the national average in every region by 2020 .

This is regional recovery.

It won’t be an easy task. It will involve setting ambitious targets for each sector as outlined in this strategy and creating the enterprise environment for business to reach these new heights.

Building on the jobs recovery to date, I fully believe that Ireland can achieve the ambition of becoming the best small country in the world for business, to live, to raise a family and to grow old.

A strong economy with full employment that supports vibrant public services for our people is within our grasp if we make the right choices.

Together we will realise this ambition for Ireland.

Thank you.