Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

Industrial employment is a key element of our economy and will continue as such well into the future. Nevertheless, we have to set the decline in industrial employment against continued employment expansion in the broader economy. In the time period to which the Deputy's question relates, between 1998 and 2003, more than 270,000 jobs have been created and Irish unemployment is among the lowest in the European Union and significantly lower than that in France, Germany, Finland or Sweden. This has been helped in no small part by the Government's economic policies.

While industrial employment has reduced in recent years, employment in international and financial services has displayed remarkable resilience despite international difficulties. Among firms within these sectors supported by the development agencies, employment has grown consistently from 39,800 in 1998 to more than 67,000 in 2003. Employment in these sectors remained relatively stable last year, which is quite an achievement given what happened in the global economy.

The development agencies are targeting more resources to underpin the competitiveness of companies by encouraging them to move into higher order functions such as research and development, pumping more effort into innovation and developing more complex or customer driven services. Increasing enterprise competitiveness in high-margin activities will give companies the sustainable competitive advantage required to survive in the evolving aggressive cost driven, global business world.

In this regard I have asked the enterprise strategy group to recommend and prioritise new strategies and policies to ensure that the prosperity we enjoyed in the past decade will continue into the future. The group is examining the issues that I and my Government colleagues will need to take to strengthen our enterprise environment, promote an innovation and knowledge driven economy and help sustain those industries already providing employment here. The group is working towards submitting a report to me by the end of this month.

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