Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim fáilte roimh an Aire agus a fhoireann. Gabhaim fáilte freisin as ucht an éisteacht a bhfuil á thabhairt aige don choiste agus go bhfuil rudaí sa phlean nua seo a tháinig as an gcoiste seo. Tá fios agam nach bhfuil Gaeilge líofa ag an Aire agus mar sin cuirfidh mé mo cheisteanna as Béarla, ach beidh mé úsáid mo chuid Ghaeilge le linn coicíos na Gaeilge.

I welcome the Minister. The action plan for 2015 includes points raised by the committee over the past 12 months. These include the need for regional plans and advanced property solutions in the IDA. I wish to drill down several aspects with the Minister. In 2014 the labour force fell, which suggests emigration. We still have a problem with losing our talented people, the very people for whom the Minister seeks to have a recruitment strategy in this year's action plan. If the plan is as successful as the Minister would lead us to believe, why are people still leaving the country? Why is the talent we need to fulfil the objectives of the plan still leaving?

With regard to the CSO figures, of the 80,000 jobs the Minister claims to have created, 27,000 are one-person self-employed operations. They work in self-employment for at least one hour a week. During the lifetime of the plan will the Minister monitor how many of these 27,000 people manage to give employment to others and how many leave self-employment to move into the employed labour force? The number of full-time employee positions created is approximately 50% of the jobs being added. The majority of jobs seem to be part-time or in zero-hour contracts with little security. What strategy is in place to address these issues?

With regard to commitments on finance and the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland, I am on record as stating it is a mistake. We need competition in the banking market. This does not provide competition in the banking market. It does not make sense to give more money to the two institutions which work very closely together when we could have a new institution trying to shake things up. Several weeks ago, the Minister announced an extension of the credit guarantee scheme with regard to allowing companies to use it to buy out their borrowings from banks exiting the market. Has this come into operation?

Some banks which may not be exiting the market are selling their portfolios none the less, and are forcing small and medium enterprises to sell their loan portfolios to investment funds which will have no regard for the employment at stake. Can we extend the credit guarantee scheme further to include banks staying in the market but actively selling their loan portfolios?

A total of 80,000 people have been on the live register for three years or more, which is the duration of the Action Plan for Jobs.

How have they missed out on all this success? Is specific attention being paid to people who have been on the live register for that long? Are they part of the 86,000 who are on activation schemes? Are they churning around various schemes and not being given the chance to access the labour market?

I welcome the regional plans. I am sceptical about them but will wait to see them. What element of co-ordination is under way to ensure the plan we get in the midlands, which will be the first plan, is not replicated in other regions? Is there co-ordination to ensure the unique selling points of each region are being delivered on and are not been replicated? There is no point doing the same thing in every region and then the USPs being lost in that process. Is there a central point for the creation of all the regional plans?

Action 52 mentions that there will be a broadband tender in 2015 to get high speed broadband to places where it is not available. Will the Minister elaborate on that because the national broadband plan published by the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy White, some weeks ago mentioned a deadline of 2020 for a connection to every area which does not have high speed broadband. I am fully in agreement with the Minister in terms of self-employment and the need for start-ups but we will not have a start-up culture in this country until we get broadband right. If Romania, which has a very dispersed rural population, can have one of the biggest animation businesses in the world because it got its broadband right, surely we can get ours right also.

There is a commitment to cut red tape. If we are to be the best place in the world to do business in 2016, what specific items of red tape will be cut? Has agreement been reached on what the Minister defines as red tape and what business might define it as? Other people or, for the want of a better description, former social partners might define red tape as rights. What is the position on getting agreement on what constitutes red tape among all sectors because the lack of agreement often stops red tape being removed?

Bhí ról ag Údarás na Gaeltachta chun tionscadal idirnáisiúnta a thabhairt go dtí ceantair Ghaeltachta. Rud atá ráite le tamall anois ná nach bhfuil a lán cumhacht nó a lán airgid ag an Údarás chun sin a dhéanamh. Cé atá i gceannas comhlachtaí thar lear a mhealladh go dtí na ceantair Ghaeltachta? Cé atá i gceannas stráitéis fostaíochta a chruthú sna ceantair Ghaeltachta? An bhfuil stráitéis spéisialta ann? Tá an Aire ag toiliú stráitéisí réigiúnacha. An mbeidh an Aire in ann stráitéis spéisialta a dtoiliú le haghaidh ceantair Ghaeltachta? Bheadh na stráitéis seo cosúil leis na stráitéisí réigiúnacha atá á dtoiliú.