Economic and Social Policy Publications
Ireland’s National Reform Programme identifies national targets in each of the five headline areas of the Europe 2020 Strategy: employment, research and development, climate change, education and poverty. It highlights the main bottlenecks to reaching these targets and sets out the measures necessary to allow Ireland overcome these and achieve its national targets. The National Reform Programme complements the Stability Programme Update as part of the European Semester.
A Framework for Sustainable Economic Renewal
FOREWORD
Ireland faces challenging economic circumstances but there are also great opportunities on the horizon. While it is imperative we successfully plan our way through the current economic storm, we must also restructure our economy so that we can be in pole position when the global recovery begins.
Building Ireland’s Smart Economy sets out an ambitious set of actions to reorganise the economy over the next five years and to secure the prosperity of current and future generations. It sets out a framework to address the current economic challenges and to build a ‘Smart Economy’ with a thriving enterprise sector, high-quality employment, secure energy supplies, an attractive environment, and first-class infrastructure.
The National Reform Programme (NRP) produced in October last brings together a broad range of policies and initiatives, the implementation of which aims to sustain Ireland’s strong economic growth and employment performance as its overall contribution to the re-launched Lisbon Agenda, focusing particularly on growth and jobs, over the period to 2008.
November 2003
This second National Action Plan (NAPs/incl) represents not just a Governmental, but a societal response, to the challenge of combating poverty and social exclusion. It is the product of wide and intensive consultation with the social partners, the community and voluntary sector and many other interested parties. I wish to pay tribute to so many who gave their time, expertise and commitment to shaping the analysis and policies that make up this plan.
I am pleased to introduce this volume, which contains excellent summaries of both the submissions and the seminar proceedings prepared by independent consultants.
I am heartened that the broad approach being taken in the plan is in line with that sought by the participants in the process. There are also new challenges identified, many suggestions and proposals for further development of policy and priorities for action. I am pleased that these are all now on record.
This second National Action Plan (NAPs/incl) represents not just a Governmental, but a societal response, to the challenge of combating poverty and social exclusion. It is the product of wide and intensive consultation with the social partners, the community and voluntary sector and many other interested parties. I wish to pay tribute to so many who gave their time, expertise and commitment to shaping the analysis and policies that make up this plan.
This report brings together the key findings of the Steering Group on Social and Equality Statistics which met regularly between April and November 2002. The Steering Group was established to undertake a scoping study of what needed to be done to develop Irish social and equality statistics so that they could meet current and impending policy needs. There were two particular emphases in the Steering Group’s work: identifying data within existing administrative records that could be used to build social statistics; and asking those directly involved in policy making in government departments and agencies to identify their precise data needs in the context of the growing importance of evidence-based policy making.
The review of economic performance shows the historical significance of what has
been achieved in Ireland in that the past fifteen years. In the nineteenth century
Ireland experienced de-industrialisation and a dramatic reduction in population
through emigration. For much of the twentieth century, the growth of output per
capita in Ireland was the lowest among 23 European countries, with the single
exception of the UK. Irish output and living standards declined substantially relative
to the European average. Since 1960, economic growth in Ireland has been sufficient,
for the most part, to maintain Ireland’s position relative to continental Europe and to
converge with UK living standards.
The purpose of this Green Paper is to bring the issues to the attention of the wider community and to encourage debate. This debate should include issues of design and implementation of tax and welfare policy to increase the prospects of achieving the positive benefits of Basic Income, while seeking to minimise those effects that might be regarded as less desirable. That debate continues in such fora as the NESC and in discussions under the PPF looking at wider issues of tax and welfare policy, such as the Working Group on Refundable Tax Credits.