Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and his officials, Mr. William Parnell and Ms Gráinne O'Carroll. Over the weekend the Minister and I discussed the action plan for jobs. There is nothing wrong with it and I welcome the plan's approach.

With regard to the Action Plan on Jobs 2012, at the end of the year we had 429,000 people on the live register of which 329,000 people were full-time unemployed. That will be the measure we use to analyse the action plan. I know that job creation takes time and that governments do not create jobs. The live register must be the measure we use to see progress. The measure of any action plan is where the action is.

I shall ask a couple of specific questions on initiatives rather than make general remarks. The Government is committed, in the programme for Government, to creating 100,000 new jobs by 2016. The medium-term fiscal outlook was published in November. It stated that there was only a 1% growth in employment level anticipated by 2015 which means that around 18,000 jobs are anticipated. Can the Minister explain the difference in numbers?

I wish to comment on specific parts of the plan. The term "disruptive reforms" sounds like a good title. Can the Minister explain how disruptive reforms will work? He said that he will identify private sector champions to drive them. What kind of people has he in mind? Will there be open competition? Will back-up be provided? It is all very well getting somebody with private sector experience. It will be a challenge to get somebody from the private sector to work through the layers of the public sector, particularly for some of the reforms that he has in mind. What support will be available to them that will allow them to navigate his or her way through the bureaucracy that he spoke about previously?

I welcome the plan to reform the work permit system. Will it include the so-called technology visa that was championed by Open Ireland? Has he more thoughts on the matter?

I welcome the licensing enforcement regime and its reform. A difficulty for many people in business, particularly in retail, is the number of inspections that are carried out. An inspector from the HSE, NERA or three or four other inspectors could call by a business. The Minister has said that he intends to tidy up all of the licences. Will he tidy up the inspection process? Will he have a united inspection process?

Can the Minister confirm that the JobsPlus scheme will be operated only by the Department of Social Protection? In terms of the selection process for the employer, what will be involved for any business that is interested in the scheme? What do they have to do? Will it be similar to the employers' incentive scheme that was previously operated by Enterprise Ireland? Can people on the live register join the scheme? Will people be chosen from the live register? Will they be corralled off the register?

The Minister said that his Department's typical value will be of the gross national minimum wage cost. What specific costs of employment will be covered by the grant?

During Question Time on Thursday we had a discussion on the reasons the previous schemes did not work and reached the conclusion it was due to a lack of awareness. What initiatives has the Minister in mind to increase awareness among employers and those on the liver register about the scheme?

Will the Minister confirm the provisions for SME financing? The Minister was very diplomatic in stating his position on Thursday evening and he skirted around it today that he is not overly happy with the state of lending to SMEs at present. Since 2012 there has been established a monitoring group headed up by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to drive SME financing. Will the Minister elaborate on the genesis and establishment of the group?

There is less than a page devoted to the retail sector, one of our major industries. I accept the single licensing applications regime. The Minister proposes to establish an inter-departmental group which I presume will be some sort of retail strategy group. Are the terms of reference in place. What is the timeline for the establishment of the group? Will there be representatives of the retail industry on the group?

Similarly, a quarter of those on the live register previously worked in construction. There are few targeted measures for this sector. I know it is proposed to publish a Forfás report on construction in the coming days or weeks. Will the Minister elaborate on that?