The Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms. Mary Coughlan, T.D., today (Thursday, 6 August 2009) announced a €250 million scheme to protect up to 27,400 vulnerable jobs in the productive sector of the economy. The Employment Subsidy Scheme (Temporary) will provide a subsidy of €9,100 per employee over fifteen months to qualifying exporting enterprises in the manufacturing and/or internationally traded services sectors. Qualifying enterprises must be judged vulnerable in the current economic climate but viable in the medium to long term, with such analysis being co-ordinated by Enterprise Ireland. The scheme is being introduced, in the context of rising unemployment, to assist in the retention of jobs and to help retain the economy’s export potential.

Making the announcement, the Tánaiste said, “Not only will the scheme support the maintenance of vulnerable jobs, but it will help our economy retain its productive capacity and assist employers retain their labour, knowledge and skills-base, thereby supporting a faster return to sustainable growth.”

The Tánaiste said that these challenging times demanded innovative responses from Government and that the new scheme was in addition to the €100 million Enterprise Stabilisation Fund put in place by the Government earlier this year. “Many of our exporting firms are experiencing great challenges in the current economic environment and the Government believes that unless additional innovative forms of support are provided, more jobs may be lost.”

“In providing this support, the Government is optimistic that jobs will be saved and that vulnerable enterprises will benefit and will survive through the current challenging economic period. These firms will then be able to grow and develop and to provide essential jobs and investment in the recovery phase.”

Over fifteen months, the Employment Subsidy Scheme (Temporary) will provide a maximum subsidy of €200 per full-time employee per week for the first twenty-six weeks, reducing to €150, €100 and €50 respectively for each of the subsequent thirteen-week periods. Under State Aid rules the maximum subsidy payable to any one enterprise, or group of related enterprises, for the duration of the scheme is €500,000[1].

The closing date for applications for the Employment Subsidy Scheme (Temporary) is 4 September 2009 and interested enterprises may apply online at the dedicated website www.employmentsubsidy.ie or, for enterprises supported by IDA Ireland, contact their IDA Ireland Project Officer directly.