Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and his officials. I appreciate that this is a review of the Action Plan for Jobs, for which I commend the Minister and the Department because it sets out clearly the actions needed and, most importantly, identifies responsibilities. I commend the Minister's engagement with SMEs and stakeholders. I attended one of his meetings in Galway city which was very well attended by senior people from multinational companies and SMEs. We need more communication on the very many support programmes and initiatives taken by the Department and the Government. It is hoped the establishment of the LEOs will help solve that problem in that they will be a one-stop shop for everyone looking to create jobs. I welcome the JobsPlus initiative because it is better to be working part-time than not working at all.

My main concern is the construction sector, which suffered a large number of job losses after the collapse. Various groups have attended this committee and proposed initiatives relating to grants or VAT rates which they claim would be cost-neutral in some cases. Many former workers in the construction industry are at an age where they are reliant on future job opportunities within that industry such as those involving retrofitting schemes and building small extensions. A few weeks ago at this committee Chambers Ireland proposed a VAT initiative which could be considered in discussions with the Minister for Finance when the budget is being prepared.