Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

Deputy Howlin asked if the decline will continue. Unfortunately, I believe it will. This matter took up a great deal of attention at our recent informal EU Council meeting, and a paper from the European Commission will be discussed next week at our Council meeting in Brussels on relocation or de-industrialisation. The matter is a concern of every European country. Some 70% of EU employment is in services, which also account for 70% of the EU GDP, a figure which will probably grow over time. The reason Deputy Howlin supplied his own answer is that many of the industrial jobs are in basic manufacturing, and there are many areas of the world, such as China, Morocco, Brazil and Mexico, where wage costs are very significantly lower than in Europe and in the United States. This is also an issue in the United States in the context of the election. All developed economies are experiencing a decline in industrial employment, and companies are now acting on a global basis, and restructuring very rapidly. They are moving jobs very quickly to places where not only wages but cost bases are substantially lower.

That is why we are putting such huge emphasis on alternative forms of employment. I accept that not everyone will be a scientist or a highly-skilled employee, but there will be many jobs in services and in higher value-added activity as far as manufacturing is concerned. The hope is that employment opportunities will be generated for everyone who is available to work in Ireland. That means we must move everyone up to the next level.

Notwithstanding what I have said, I have seen fantastic examples of Irish companies in textiles, engineering and in basic activities which against the odds, because of imaginative in-house policies, are doing extraordinarily well, and increasing employment.

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