Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

I hope these measures will engender an element of confidence on the residential side. One of the key issues in restoring confidence in the house building sector is to tempt people into the market who have been postponing the decision to buy because of a perception that prices will fall lower. If we can tempt even a small element of them it will stimulate more house purchases. At the other end, we must hope that the stamp duty reform regime the Minister has put in place will also prevent some builders from stopping supply coming into the market. There is evidence that some builders are not taking the discount on house prices, but prefer to sit on houses in the hope of eventually getting the asking price. A certain element of discounting needs to occur so that people can be confident, albeit taking a discount on house prices and thus releasing them onto the market in the hope that, of itself, such moves will stimulate further purchase activity. Hopefully that will happen.

While I am not expressing Government policy in this personal view, I hope the Minister will examine whether stamp duty reform could be brought to bear on the non-residential sector of the construction industry. There is some evidence that commercial property transactions are being held back because of the stamp duty issue. Some developers to whom I have spoken in recent weeks have mentioned that as one of the factors that may be inhibiting transactions and trade in the commercial property sector. I do not know and I will leave it as an open question, but I am sure the Minister will take it into consideration when he plans further measures.

I thank the Minister, Deputy Cowen, for the generous allocation to me as Minister with responsibility for integration. The sum of €9.2 million is a substantial allocation which will allow me to begin my work on the integration agenda. Because this is a budget debate, I will confine my remarks on integration and immigration to the strong economic reasons for such a ministerial portfolio, as well as cross-departmental action. Across our society we need to take the issues of integration and immigration seriously. The ESRI estimates that migrants contributed at least 2.5% to our GDP in recent years. Migrants in Ireland are predominantly able-bodied workers aged from 18 to 44, and they form a dynamic and productive part of our workforce. Interestingly, in many cases, in that particular age cohort, they are predominantly better qualified than Irish citizens. They are more likely to be degree holders, for example, and have a potential to add further to the productivity of our economy in future. One of the challenges for this Government and its successors will be to maximise the potential productivity that migrants bring to our country. They are predominantly over-qualified for the jobs they currently fill and therefore a key challenge will be to ramp up the levels of English-language tuition for such adults so they can access it and will not be inhibited in any way from rising up the career ladder. That is one of the challenges facing my departmental remit.

There is a twin paradox in the labour market as it is currently constituted. On the one hand, 10% or 12% of our population comprises migrants who are over-qualified for the jobs they hold. At the same time, however, 300,000 of our indigenous Irish population are under-qualified for the fabled jump they must now make to achieve the high value-added economy to which we aspire. These are important challenges which we can face up to. The budget gives us the platform to do that. Ireland is facing a major challenge in the years ahead. We will see closures and low value-added employment leaving the country.

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