Labour will deliver a job for everyone who wants one by 2018 – Burton & Nash

Tánaiste and Labour Party Leader Joan Burton, and Business and Employment Minister Ged Nash, launched ‘Standing up for Jobs’, the Labour Party’s plan for full employment by 2018 this morning in Drogheda.

Labour plans to:

Deliver a job for everyone who wants one by 2018 and will do this by investing in people, in skills and in the businesses that create jobs.

Invest in people through the creation of 50,000 apprenticeships and traineeships and to further increase the minimum wage to a living wage of €11.30 per hour.

        
Help companies access the funding they need to grow. Increase the scale of the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland’s lending to SMEs and protect the 12.5pc corporation tax rate.

         
Invest in innovation. Increase the funding available for research and development to small companies, and scale up the 15 Technology Centres. 

Better supports for start-ups. Reduce the Capital Gains Tax entrepreneur relief to 15pc and increase its lifetime limit to €10m.

Speaking at the launch at Boann Distillery Drogheda, Tánaiste Joan Burton said: “The Labour Party is the party of work and opportunity, the party that stands up for working people. The recovery we’re driving has already created more than 135,000 new jobs and we will shortly have more than two million people at work. 

“Behind every job is a person or family benefitting from recovery in their own lives. Our plan will ensure a job for everyone who wants one by 2018, and 50,000 new apprenticeships and traineeships to give our young people choice in building great careers.” 

Minister Ged Nash added: “In the next Government, we will do more. We will increase the minimum wage until it is pegged at 60pc of median earnings. We have also embraced the Living Wage initiative. We will ensure that all State bodies become Living Wage employers.

“Good workplaces aren’t just good for employees: they are good for business and our economy as a whole. As well as tackling low pay, we are committed to fairness and decency in the workplace and to tackling the causes of insecurity at work.”