Radical reform is needed if businesses are to start creating job opportunities once more, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton, stated this week.
Mr Bruton was speaking at Dromoland Castle Hotel where he was keynote speaker at a Shannon Chamber business conference.
"If we are to create the jobs and growth we so badly need, we are going to have to undertake radical reform across the entire economy to make it easier for businesses to create employment. This means above all reducing costs, improving access to finance, providing better and more supports to job-creating businesses, and putting innovation at the centre of everything we do.
"This will not happen overnight. We will have to grind out the reforms one by one if we are going to achieve the Government's ambition of making Ireland the best small country in which to do business. They will be painful for some people, particularly in sheltered parts of the public and private sector, and we will need support if we are to drive them through. However if we are to build a strong economy with solid foundations this is where the hard work must start.
“In next month's Action Plan for Jobs we will begin a rigorous, monitored process of driving changes across government and the economy to improve the business environment and enable the creation of the jobs we need,” he said.
Shannon Chamber president, Damian Gleeson, added: “The business sector, both indigenous and multinational, is struggling to survive and costs such as local authority charges and redundancy-associated costs are eating into their cash flows. Any alleviation of charges in these areas would ease some of the financial burdens businesses are now faced with.”
