DUBLIN: Ireland is offering cash to citizens who have been successful overseas if they can think of ways to create jobs back home in the debt-ridden country, a government spokesman said Thursday. The scheme, which will involve a finder's fee of 3,000 euros ($4,460) for every job created that is still in existence after two years, will be part of a job creation package to be announced by the government next week. Prime Minister Enda Kenny told the Irish Times the scheme was a “different version of ask not what your country can do for you”, ask what you can do for your country, in reference to US president John F. Kennedy's famous appeal. The scheme is aimed at tapping the potential of the small and medium Irish enterprises around the world, particularly in the US, according to Kenny who is visiting New York for a series of meetings aimed at attracting investment. Ireland is already working on how to use the skills of its estimated 80 million-strong diaspora, the creation of centuries of emigration. In 2010, a Global Irish Network was set up and regional meetings have been held in Britain, France, Germany, the US, China and Australia. The government also agreed this week to hold a global Irish economic forum in Dublin Castle in October to discuss with leading members of the diaspora the development of Ireland's international business and trade relations, as well as priorities for the country's economic renewal. Kenny's coalition government, which took power in March, is battling to return the country to financial health. The previous government of prime minister Brian Cowen was hammered in a February general election after it was forced to accept an 85-billion-euro EU-IMF bailout in November. – Agence France
