Mary White (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is a pleasure to welcome the Minister of State back to the House. I congratulate the Government on lowering the level of unemployment to 11.8%. It is a tremendous achievement and it proves that the Government's focus on unemployment has had a significant impact. However, more than 250,000 people remain unemployed. In his message for Lent the revolutionary pope, Pope Francis, warned that unjust social conditions like unemployment can lead to financial ruin and even suicide and that depriving people of the dignity of work, education and health care is a serious threat to their quality of life. He also noted that two of the most urgent problems facing the Catholic Church are youth unemployment and the treatment of the elderly. His key message was that it is unjust to deprive young people of jobs or to mistreat older people.

I commend the Minister of State on his passion for this issue. I am sure he is familiar with the Fianna Fáil policy paper on promoting women entrepreneurs in Ireland and fresh thinking on employment solutions, of which I am the author. The policy paper makes ten recommendations. I thank the Government for accepting my recommendation in regard to maternity leave. It is not possible for a woman entrepreneur to take 28 weeks leave from her business. For health and safety reasons a new mother is required to take six weeks' leave but I have proposed that a woman who has taken those six weeks should have the choice of allowing her partner to share her maternity leave. Legislation to give effect to my proposal has passed Second and Committee Stages in this House and the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, is now preparing it for Report Stage in the autumn. I commend the Leader on his drive to secure this legislation.

The policy paper also recommends that a national office be established within Enterprise Ireland to promote women entrepreneurs, with the objective of raising the start-up rate of women entrepreneurs. Nearly twice as many men as women start up businesses in Ireland. We will not be utilising half of the intellectual power and creativity of the women of Ireland if we do not get them to start up as many businesses as men. As the Minister of State knows better than anybody, new business start-ups are the most effective way of creating employment.

Since I wrote the paper last year, Ms Julie Sinnamon has been appointed as CEO of Enterprise Ireland. My husband, Padraic White, is very proud that he offered her a job when in Enterprise Ireland when she started out as a young person. I compliment Ms Jean O'Sullivan, who is in charge of dealing with women entrepreneurs. She is also outstanding. We now have a big team in Enterprise Ireland to encourage more women to start up businesses. That is the only way to take people out of what the Pope has described as the injustice of people being unemployed and the potential for financial ruin. Connie Doody and I started Lir Chocolates in 1986, during the last recession. The company is currently owned by a long established German company and I remain involved as a board member. In a competition between 200 companies over who could produce the best Easter eggs in the UK and Ireland, Lir Chocolates won first and second prizes, as well as four other prizes.