Engineers body welcomes plan to slash job subsidy

Life

Engineers Ireland, the professional members’ body for all qualified engineers in Ireland, has welcomed the Government’s plan to reduce unemployment by spending €250 million on job subsidies and described it as a necessary temporary measure in the face of dire economic circumstances.

Responding to criticism of the Government’s announcement in certain quarters, John Power, Engineers Ireland director general (pictured left), emphasised that while the exact mechanics of the plan needed to be carefully thought out, it was a critical move that would benefit Irish business in the long run. “With the rate of unemployment rising to 11.9% in June, the starkness of our jobs crisis is there for all to see. Engineers Ireland has been calling for such a scheme for some time now so we commend the Government’s action in this respect. However, while I accept the exact nature of the plan must be carefully crafted not to buffer uncompetitive and inefficient companies, there should be no questioning the need for such a measure.

“While it is clearly not in the State’s interest to sponsor or support inefficient businesses that have no long-term prospects, there are many organisations that face credit restrictions and other external business constraints that are hammering their prospects to remain viable. Many of these firms are hamstrung by factors more associated with the broader global downturn. These companies and their staff need support that will help them survive the current crisis and that will allow them to grow and prosper when circumstances improve.”

On-job training and upskilling should be an integral part of the scheme but he also said that Ireland needed to be much smarter with regards to human resources generally if we are to avoid a mass de-skilling across unemployed people that would exacerbate our current economic problems and undermine the Government’s Smart Economy framework.

Engineers Ireland implemented a support plan earlier this year to ensure its members, who have become unemployed due to the recent economic downturn in certain industry sectors, have access to discounted seminars and workshops to help them use this downtime productively by re-skilling and considering transferring their engineering skills to other more prosperous segments.

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