Wednesday, December 09, 2009

New Activation Fund

The Enterprise, Trade and Employment section of the Summary of Budget Measures indicates the following:

"Within the overall allocation for Enterprise, Trade & Employment, resources will be directed towards Support Measures for the Food Industry and a range of activation measures including 10/20 week FÁS Training Courses or work placements to provide additional training and upskilling places for the unemployed; and an Activation Fund which will involve an open call for activation proposals targeted at the construction and low skilled sectors."

More details are available from a press release on the website of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. €1.2 billion will be provided in 2010 to support job retention and tackle unemployment through a range of activation and training measures, employment programmes and the Employment Subsidy Scheme (previously discussed here).

An additional €90 million will be committed in 2010 to increase the number of training and activation places for the unemployed by 16,300 - to a total of 146,300, bringing the number of activation places across Government to over 180,000. A detailed announcement on the nature of places to be made available in 2010 will be made at a later date.

In addition, there will be an additional 500 Community Employment Scheme places in 2010. €20 million of the additional funding will fund the call (mentioned above) for proposals targeting the low skilled and those suffering from unemployment in declining sectors including construction.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Also from today's DETE press release:---

The Tánaiste confirmed that headline job stimulus measures in Budget 2010 included:

* -a prioritising by Government of capital investment in the productive sector and ‘Smart Economy’, with a €474 million capital commitment to the enterprise, job creation, and science, technology and innovation mandate of her Department and its agencies, IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, Shannon Development, Science Foundation Ireland and the County and City Enterprise Boards;

* a one-year employers’ PRSI exemption for all new jobs created for the unemployed in 2010;

* a reduction in both the standard rate of VAT and rate of excise on alcohol to sustain jobs in the retail sector; and

* an extension of the three-year corporation tax exemption for start-up companies with a liability of less than €40,000.

Anonymous said...

Also, the Second Call to the Employment Subsidy Scheme went live yesterday:

http://bit.ly/4xsKOM

The cost of €65 million associated with the second call brings the total financial allocation for this scheme to €135 million.

The Second Call is open to exporting and non-exporting companies from all sectors of the economy that employ more than 10 employees.

A notable difference is that there are now two bands within the Second Call. Under the first band employees must work an average of 35 hours or more per week and enterprises will receive a subsidy of €9,100 paid over a twelve-month period for each subsidised job.

Under the second band employees must work an average of 21 or more hours per week, but less than 35 hours a week and enterprises will receive a subsidy of €6,370 (70% of the full subsidy) over a twelve-month period for each subsidised job.