Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. It is incredible that net income has reduced by 28% in the past two years. The average drop in farm income for the same period is 40% while in wet land areas it is far higher. In my own constituency 14,500 people are out of work, 1,030 of those having joined the dole queue in the past 12 months. No other economy has experienced such a decline.

The Governor of the Central Bank and the two independent banking experts have shown clearly that the Government was seriously at fault in what happened. We now know that at least 75% of the current crisis was home-made. Some 300,000 people have lost their jobs and another 150,000 have had to emigrate. Some 90% of those who have lost their jobs are under 35 years of age and many of them have mortgages and other commitments. The Government got us into this crisis and is clearly incapable of getting us out of it.

I fully recognise the personal efforts of the Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan, on the banking issue. He may not have been right but he has certainly tried. However, an exclusive focus on the banking sector will not get us out of this crisis. We must have a stimulus for job creation. Small businesses, farmers and others must be able to access working capital to allow them to stay in business. We learned in recent days that funding for roads and other infrastructure project will be reduced, meaning less work will be available. Schools building programmes and other projects are being delayed because of red tape. It is better to pay people to do that work, enabling them to make a contribution in income tax, rather than have them on the dole.

The difficulties businesses and farmers are experiencing with red tape are intolerable. I spoke recently to a dear friend of mine who sold his farm in the Carrickmacross area some time ago, although the sale did not go through for other reasons. He is now farming in the United Kingdom - a fellow EU member state - and the difference he has described in the level of bureaucracy is incredible. These issues must be examined. The hospitality sector and others are plagued by over-zealous bureaucracy. We have gone from no regulation to over-regulation. It is easy for any individual to board an aeroplane and travel to other member states to see what is happening there. These people know what they are talking about.

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