Ireland: FG Job Creation Subsidy Plan offers up to 40% of dole costs to employers

Job Creation Subsidy under FG Plan

Employers considering taking on new staff can avail of a €4,000 subsidy for one year to support those new jobs under proposals announced outside Trinity College last Tuesday by Fine Gael Leader Enda Kenny TD and Leo Varadkar, Fine Gael’s Enterprise Spokesman. The €4,000 back to work subsidy, which is the equivalent of 37% of the annual jobseekers’ allowance in year one, reduces to €2,000 in the second and final year of the subsidy and will be paid through deductions through the PRSI system for the employer.

The back to work subsidy complements Fine Gael’s policy of exempting PRSI for employers recruiting new staff in 2009 and 2010 but is particularly targeted at companies considering recruiting younger workers who, because they tend to be paid less, would benefit less from the PRSI exemption alone. Commenting on the back to work proposal, Enda Kenny said: ‘Ireland is facing the very real prospect of a lost generation of young people who cannot get work. Recent CSO figures showed a 123% increase in the live register in the last 12 months for the 25 to 34 age group, an increase of 68,760 people.

At the same time, many companies would love to expand but cannot afford the cost of taking on extra staff’.“That is why Fine Gael is proposing a job creation subsidy to help employers create new jobs and get people off the dole. This will allow employers who create new positions to claim a job creation subsidy of €6,000 over two years, with €4,000 paid in the first year and €2,000 in the second. The subsidy will be copper-fastened to ensure that if the new position is not retained for a full two years, the subsidy must be re-funded on a pro-rata basis.“This proposal complements Fine Gael’s plans for a two-year PRSI exemption on new jobs.

Employers will be able to choose either option, but the back-to-work subsidy will give them more flexibility by allowing them to select the option that suits them best.”Commenting on the measure, Deputy Varadkar said: ‘Fine Gael’s back-to-work subsidy will benefit the Exchequer by increasing revenue and reducing social welfare costs. But it will also be a vital tool in fighting the unemployment crisis that has convulsed the country, in the face of Fianna Fáil’s failure to produce any meaningful proposals’.“The Government hasn’t even realised the scale of the problem facing Ireland, in particular our young people who have been cast adrift by Fianna Fáil. This 25 to 34 year old generation bought into the housing bubble, and is now suffering most as a result of the collapse in house prices and the unemployment catastrophe.

“This proposal will help the Exchequer and it will particularly target younger workers. This type of scheme can be of particular use in terms of the recruitment of young graduates, given that the average salary for new graduates is of the order of €20,000. This back to work subsidy can be introduced very quickly through amendments to a new Social Welfare Bill, and can begin to arrest the growth in our dole queues.”