Concern over at Enterprise Ireland the Irish Government’s indeginous Development agency, with its 2019 statement showing the lowest number of net jobs in a number of years and the net number of new jobs created was down by half from 2018 .

These startling numbers rase questions about the overall strategy that the Agency is engaged in  and while Enterprise Ireland attempted to blame Brexit for the drastic drop in numbers the reality is that Brexit and it impact will cause greater damage in 2020/21 .

A key factor in the job losses is that the Irish economy is showing signs of over heating with skills shortages in all sectors and property prices for rental accommodation at an all time high .

Today the ‘ live Register ‘ figures in Ireland dropped to 4.8%  in December 2019 from 5.5% in December 2018 .This annual decrease makes the battled for talent more difficult for small and medium enterprises .

The end of year statement showed that Enterprise Ireland grant-aided companies created 16,971 new jobs in 2019 ,but job losses brought that net number of new jobs down to 4,766 which is half the number created in the previous year .

Key sectors showing expansion include Cleantech which grew by 9% , lifesciences and Fintech increased by 6% ,Electronics by 5% while ICT and International Services were up by 4% .

Jobs in the Food Sector grew by just 1 % which is a disappointing increase and will drop further when the real impact of Brexit happens in 2020/21.

To deal with the Brexit issue Enterprise Ireland has already approved funding of €125m to some of its exposed clients during 2018 and 2019 .

Interestingly Enterprise Ireland acknowledged , for the first time , that the lack of skilled workers and acute labour shortages and the impact this will have on wage rates are real challenges for Irish companies .

Back 4 Good have offered our unique solution to Enterprise Ireland , our County Talent registers , they present  an excellent opportunity for Irish firms to source top talent, however the agency is slow to respond to innovative talent solutions such as Back 4 Good .

The future for Enterprise Ireland over the next 3 years is a concern and the agency would benefit from a review of its overall strategy to take account of full employment in Ireland, the lack of skilled professionals ,the competition from multinationals and of course Brexit .