Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank members for their interest in and commitment to this field. We may not agree on everything, but there is no question of the level of commitment on all sides.

Deputy Tóibín asked whether we were delivering outputs relative to our inputs. Our Department has seen a 16% cut in its inputs in the form of 500 fewer people employed. We do not claim that it is all down to us that 20,000 extra people are at work, but there has been a turnaround. We have pursued research prioritisation, introduced our intellectual property, IP, protocol and are putting in place a better system of supporting innovation. We did the same in respect of Enterprise Ireland, in that we initiated new schemes and set up a first-time exporters division. We have introduced new funding, for example, micro-financing, the temporary loan guarantee and seed capital. Our new measures are having an impact.

No one can pretend that our Department could deal with a collapse in house building from 90,000 per year to 5,000 per year. That collapse wiped out a swathe of employees, but I cannot talk the 5,000 back up to 90,000. I must make do with the new areas of the economy that we can grow. For this reason, the work on innovation and reform and the new activities in export markets constitute the only sustainable course for supporting our ambitions as a small open economy.

It is not true to say that there is a prejudice in favour of FDI. Only €100 million of our €760 million is directed towards FDI. Innovation alone comprises €150 million of our budget. Enterprise Ireland has a larger budget. We are doing a great deal in other areas. None of the €2.5 billion in new SME funding is targeted at FDI. However, FDI remains an important element of our strategy. One cannot build a strong cluster in ICT, medical devices or pharma without major multinational investors. The challenge we are trying to meet is to build the ecosystem beneath that level.

I take Deputy Calleary's point that there is an enterprise role to a youth guarantee. Regarding Deputy Lawlor's intervention, we are determining whether we should have a competitive start fund solely for young people and whether we can do more in terms of youth entrepreneurship. A part of the recently announced review of entrepreneurship will consider this matter specifically.

Regarding the criticism of the high level of part-time employment - not temporary employment - among the 20,000 extra people, the growth during the past two quarters was in full-time employment. The pattern seems to be that people start with part-time employment and grow into full-time employment. We are in a transition and I am not pretending that we are anywhere near arriving. Indeed, we are a long way from anything over which we can stand.

The point on silos was well made, but the Action Plan for Jobs is a genuine vehicle for breaking them down. We can point to a number of successes, for example, the ICTU skills area and the health innovation hub, where people have stepped up to the plate and done something different on the employment end.

Competition by SMEs for public procurement contracts continues to be a problem. We are examining this in two ways. We need to make public procurement savings. If procurement is expensive, we cannot fund other measures. However, we also need to support innovative small companies that can solve public service problems. Under Action Plan for Jobs, we have been trying to have good, clear rules, to remove obstacles for small businesses and to cultivate innovation in procurement policies.

There is some validity in all of the members' points and we will try to take them on board, but some counterpoints are worth making.