Government policies failing to meet key Europe 2020 targets

Government policies are further excluding people who are already clinging to the margins of society, according to a new review from Social Justice Ireland. The Review analyses how Ireland is performing with regard to key national targets under the Europe 2020 Strategy.

It concludes that the Government should pay more attention to key problematic areas, such as skills deficits, under-employment, the precarious nature of many work contracts and persistently high levels of long-term unemployment. 

The Review shows that:

• Ireland’s employment rate is nine percentage points lower than the Europe 2020 Strategy target, with only five years left to bridge this gap.
• Almost one in four young people in the labour force are unemployed. The figure would be even higher but for the fact that emigration has been a constant part of Irish life since the 2008 crash.
• A high number of people with jobs are still in poverty. These are the ‘working poor’.
• Long-term unemployment has become structural, as more than half of those unemployed have been in this situation for more than a year.

The Report, ‘Ireland and the Europe 2020 Strategy, 2015’, may be accessed here.

Europe 2020 is the EU's growth strategy for the present decade.  It aims to make the EU a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy. These three mutually reinforcing priorities are meant to deliver high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion.  Within this strategy the EU has set five ambitious objectives - on employment, innovation, education, social inclusion and climate/energy - to be reached by 2020. Each Member State has adopted its own national targets in each of these areas. Concrete actions at EU and national levels are meant to underpin the strategy.

Social Justice Ireland charts Ireland’s progress on meeting the EU 2020 targets on a yearly basis. Its latest report, the fourth in this series, covers the social inclusion aspects that were addressed in the Irish National Reform Programme. These are employment, education and ‘poverty and social exclusion’.

This Review welcomes the fact that Government has introduced measures to address unemployment, and that some recent initiatives have focussed on the long-term unemployed. However, many key issues are not being adequately addressed. For example, the number of people availing of Activation Programmes - 83,534 people in October 2014 – represents just a third of the total unemployed (245,500 people, Q3, 2014).

Current trends in Irish public policy run counter to the promotion of ‘inclusive growth,’ which is one of the three key priorities that underpin the Europe 2020 Strategy. Inclusive growth is not just about fostering a high-employment economy; it also aims to deliver social cohesion. It is integral to the Europe 2020 Strategy and should also be integral to the Irish Government’s response.

With only five years left to achieve the targets it set out in the Europe 2020 Strategy on employment, education and poverty, the Government should take emergency action in the coming year to have any chance of achieving its targets.

It should immediately address five key proposals contained in the Review, as follows:

1. Carry out in-depth social impact assessments prior to implementing all policies in order to ensure that the position of people experiencing poverty and social exclusion is not worsened by the measures being pursued. (Review, page 76)
2. Invest in universal, quality early childhood education and care that addresses all stages of early childhood (that is, in addition to the year allowed under the Early Childhood Care and Education Scheme).  (Review, page 50)
3. Set a target in the forthcoming National Reform Programme to reduce the level of long-term unemployment to 1.3% of the labour force (the level it was at in 2007).  (Review, page 36)
4. Reduce in-work poverty by making tax credits refundable.  (Review, page 36)
5. Substantially increase investment in lifelong learning to assist the greater participation of low skilled and older workers. (Review, page 50)

‘Ireland and the Europe 2020 Strategy: Employment, Education and Poverty, 2015’, may be accessed here.