In this week’s public policy bulletin, we take a look at the Government’s Spring legislative programme as well as the newly released ‘Report on Banking’ from the Oireachtas Committee on finance. In addition, we examine a report from the ESRI on migrant wage gaps as well as the latest labour market statistics for Northern Ireland. We also outline details of the EU Commission’s new ‘Talent Booster Programme’, due to take effect this year.
Government launches its Spring 2023 legislative programme
This week saw the Government launch its Spring legislative programme in which the policy priorities of Cabinet for the coming Dail term were set out. Listing 38 bills in total, issues which have been earmarked for “priority publication” include provisions for the introduction of an Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System aimed at ensuring future generations do not face an income cliff edge at retirement age. In addition, the Planning & Development Bill and the Land Value Sharing and Urban Development Zones Bill have also been tabled as part of the Government’s ‘housing for all’ strategy. The full legislative programme is available here.
Oireachtas committee ‘Report on Banking 2022’ released
The Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform this week released its ‘Report on Banking 2022’ in which it examined a range of issues in the banking sector including the withdrawal of Ulster Bank and KBC from the Irish market, the tracking mortgage scandal and banking remuneration policy. Noting how public trust in the sector remained “extremely low”, the all-party committee report outlined how the removal of the cap on pay and bonuses is inappropriate and that such a policy change could be "damaging to public confidence in the regulation of the sector” and would “not address longstanding customer issues."
ESRI report finds ‘significant migrant wage gap’
New ESRI research funded by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has found that while non-Irish nationals as a whole earned 22 percent less per hour than Irish nationals, East European workers earned, on average, 40 percent less than Irish workers in the period 2011-2018. The report notes that while part of this wage gap can be explained by differences in social and demographic characteristics (e.g., education level, type of job etc), even after these differences are accounted for, East Europeans still earn 20.5 per cent less than Irish nationals.
Moreover, the report found that non-Irish women experience a double earnings penalty. Non-Irish women earn 11 per cent less than non-Irish men, who in turn earn 18 per cent less than Irish men. This means non-Irish women earn 30 per cent less than Irish men.
Latest Northern Ireland labour market statistics released
The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency this week released its latest batch of labour market statistics for the region. According to the results, the number of employees receiving pay through HMRC PAYE in NI in December 2022 was 783,800, a 0.2 percent increase over the month and a 2.0 percent increase over the year. When considering employees by age, the 25-34 age group is the only group yet to return to pre-COVID levels, remaining 0.4 percent below March 2020 numbers. The statistics also showed that in December 2022, the seasonally adjusted number of people on the claimant count was 36,900 (3.9 percent of the workforce) – marking the fourth consecutive monthly increase in the claimant count.
EU Commission launches new ‘Talent Booster Mechanism’
In the face of sharp declines in working age populations and a growing skills gap across the bloc, this week the EU Commission launched a new initiative aimed at addressing these issues. The ‘Talent Booster Mechanism’ will aim to help pilot regions in a talent development trap develop, monitor and implement regional strategies to become more talent attractive and identify projects most cost effective to address the situation. It will also help regions at risk of falling in a talent development trap design strategies to adapt to demographic transition and identify reforms to address the situation. According to the Commission, currently 82 regions in 16 Member States are severely affected by inefficiencies in their labour markets, declines in their working age populations and a lack of university graduates.