Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)

I am delighted to be able to contribute to this debate and to outline the Government's strategy for maintaining and creating jobs. I assure Deputies that jobs and industry growth are at the centre of the Government's economic strategy. Members of the Opposition must be aware that one cannot decouple economic recovery and job creation from public financial stability and the need for a properly functioning banking system. If one cannot understand this, perhaps it is a good job the Opposition is not in Government.

I am acutely aware of the distress that the economic downturn is having on individuals, families and businesses. The negative consequences of that downturn, particularly where jobs are lost, cannot be overstated and our priority has been and will continue to be to respond to all of these problems. I am committed to supporting enterprise to drive job creation.

In what has probably been the most challenging year for the global economy since the 1930s, the Government's policies and investments enabled IDA companies to create 4,500 new jobs and increase exports to €110 billion. The Government's policies and investments enabled Enterprise Ireland companies to create more than 7,000 new jobs and win new export sales worth €693 million. Let me put this in perspective. Internationally, foreign directive investment, FDI, was down 30% last year. In Ireland, it fell by just 4%. Internationally, exports fell by more than 20%. In Ireland, they fell by less than 3%. Services exports actually grew by 2%. All of this was achieved in the depths of the recession. Now the CSO has given positive indications on the future. The quarterly accounts show Ireland moving out of recession, led by a surge in exports, which grew by 6.9% on the last quarter of 2009. The first quarter of 2010 was the second strongest quarter for exports on record. Taken together, these results provide concrete evidence that the co-ordinated measures taken by the Government to address competitiveness, the public finances and the banking system are paying off with improved confidence and clear evidence of a return to economic growth.

The Government is facing up to the serious challenges head on and we are taking decisive action to ensure that we return Ireland to economic growth. The measures we have implemented to date are having a positive impact. We need to build further on these to consolidate the economic position and to create new jobs for those who have been made unemployed. Our future economic growth will be driven by exports of goods and services. Increased exports will generate jobs directly in the provision of those goods and services. Importantly, they will also generate indirect jobs throughout the economy in domestic services, retail, construction and other sectors.

Sustainable job creation must be driven by the enterprise sector. This is why the Government is focusing on a "whole of enterprise" strategy as the best route for Ireland to deliver the sustainable economic growth we need over the coming years, support our enterprises to return Ireland to export-led growth and, in turn, drive employment generation for the longer term. IDA Ireland has already made 48 job creation announcements in 2010, spread around the country, which will create almost 3,500 jobs across a range of sectors.

Enterprise Ireland has also made a number of job creation announcements in 2010, which will lead to the creation of more than 700 jobs around the country. There are far too many people unemployed, but this does not mean that our economy is completely stagnant in terms of jobs. Demand remains weak but there are signs of increases in recruitment activity. In fact there are difficulties filling vacancies in some areas of our economy such as ICT, science, engineering, sales and finance. Although one might not think it from the Opposition motion, it has been estimated that there will be a requirement to recruit up to 96,000 people on average every year up to 2014. This is on foot of the economic recovery and growth strategy being pursued by this Government.

Contrary to the rhetoric from the Opposition benches, we are not sitting around waiting for the international upturn to simply deliver jobs some time in the future. The Opposition motion fails to recognise the fact that the Government is actively implementing the policies and taking the decisions that will allow us to achieve even more ambitious jobs targets for the future. We are putting in place the resources to enable Ireland to win at least 640 international investment projects over the next five years, which are expected to create 105,000 new jobs. We are putting equal effort into developing Irish enterprise with the specific intention of creating 68,000 new jobs over the next five years. Beyond direct enterprise support, the wider public capital investment programme for 2010 is expected to support almost 70,000 jobs in the economy. The latest significant job creation initiative introduced by the Government is the PRSI incentive scheme. This will be a direct stimulus for the real economy by saving employers money and shifting the balance in favour of job creation. It will support the creation of up to 10,000 jobs. We have already received over 500 inquiries and 100 applications related to this scheme and this is a further indication that we are getting these policies right.

All of this proves that the charge levelled by the Opposition that we have no job creation strategy is utterly untrue and misleading. It is also misleading to say that we are doing nothing to protect jobs. In addition to our ambitious job creation strategies, we have implemented effective policies to protect existing jobs. Schemes such as the enterprise stabilisation fund and employment subsidy scheme were introduced to assist companies address the difficulties arising from the difficult trading conditions as a result of the recent recession. These two schemes are enabling companies to sustain 100,000 jobs. They were devised and implemented by the Government, another fact that is ignored by the Opposition. We will continue to devise and implement effective policies to adapt to changing needs and global market demands, to prove that we have the foresight to identify the opportunities coming down the track, plan for them and, of course, seize them.

I want to deal now with one specific issue raised in the Opposition's motion this evening. This is the charge that we have failed to address issues of credit availability for business. The Minister for Finance has set out on many occasions the steps we have been taking to ensure that the banks are in a position to lend to viable businesses. Since I took over the enterprise portfolio, I have focused on ensuring that the banks follow through on their obligations to lend. In my recent meetings with the banks, I made it crystal clear to them what the Government expects from them in return for the support shown to them by the taxpayer. They were left in no doubt that failure to deliver on their obligations will not be accepted by me or the Government. In response, they confirmed that they are fully committed to meeting the targets set for them and are ambitious to expand their lending to viable SMEs. I will be monitoring the situation over the coming months and I will bring the banks in again if I am not satisfied with the evidence that those commitments are being met.

It is clear to me that there has been a knowledge deficit within the banks when it comes to lending to innovative enterprises, particularly in new and emerging sectors. That is why we have insisted that they work with the agencies of my Department to develop the skills they need. I am also looking at how we can address this and other market failures through mechanisms such as a loan guarantee scheme. We are dealing with credit availability and implementing policies to both sustain and create jobs. I believe that the Government's whole economic strategy will enable us to go forward as a more competitive economy with a sustainable and innovative enterprise base. I reject utterly the claim that we are not putting jobs and growth at the centre of our economic strategy. That claim is simply not borne out by the facts. In this context, I wholeheartedly reject the Opposition's contentions.

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