Employment:The State intends to spend €7.7 billion on worker training and skills development over the period of the plan.
As well as promoting lifelong learning and skills improvement, the plan envisages programmes to expand the workforce through the "activation" of people in such categories as the unemployed, lone parents, ex-offenders, Travellers, women and older people.
Employment growth over the period 1999 to 2006 has averaged 3.4 per cent, and the numbers in work has grown to 2 million from 1.6 million.
Over the plan the Government says it is to continue to pursue policies that will promote higher levels of employment.
It will also seek to improve the quality and productivity of work and promote social cohesion.
Labour force policy is to focus on a number of areas. One is to ensure an adequate labour force to sustain economic growth. Labour force growth is to come from the underlying population, increased participation by the unemployed, women and other groups currently under-represented in the workforce, and migration.
A second strand to the strategy is to ensure the workforce has the required skills by way of lifelong learning and the training of those in the workforce.
The plan envisages €2.8 billion being spent on upskilling the workforce and €4.9 billion being spent on increasing participation by those currently under-represented or outside the workforce.
The upskilling programme will be informed by strategies that envisage 48 per cent of the labour force having post-Leaving Cert level qualifications, and 45 per cent having Leaving Cert level qualifications.
According to the plan, the average exit age from the workforce in Ireland has been increasing over the past decade. Eurostat figures indicate that the average exit age in 2004 in Ireland was 62.8 years, while the EU average was 60.7 years.
As part of the response to an aging society, the plan suggests that workers might be encouraged to remain in work longer.
The plan suggests moves such as creating incentives for workers who want to keep working after 65, tightening the conditions for early retirement, and increasing the conditions for full pensions.
The implementation of policies on childcare, equality legislation, education, tax reform and employment rights, aimed at reducing the gender gap and occupational segregation, will encouraged more women into the workplace.
