Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)

We have lost traditional industries and, for example, the food industry is not what it once was and is going into decline. Irish Sugar is no longer with us and Dairygold is downsizing its operation. There is increasing uncertainty about Amgen. In trying to be positive about how we proceed economically and taking north and east Cork as a region, if a similar situation becomes evident, we will have to rely on indigenous industries. The Government must proactively seek to upskill those people working within existing industries and introduce some measures for employers to enable them to upskill and grow existing companies. There are many family-based companies in these towns and I am sure they could do with some incentivisation to grow. The Government should consider the issue given the current global economic climate. I am not advocating looking inward but we can start thinking more locally about how to provide incentives to grow jobs.

These are the essential points I have sought to cover. I would have liked the Finance Bill to provide for some composite scheme like the town renewal or urban renewal schemes. Towns such as Mitchelstown, Mallow and, to a lesser extent, Fermoy are still characterised by certain areas where development has not kept pace with corresponding development on the outskirts of towns. The Government could be in a position to consider some urban renewal scheme or an adjunct to the existing programme. I realise a Goodbody report on the performance of the urban renewal schemes was published which indicated a slow take-up in some aspects of the schemes. The climate is right for towns such as Mallow, Fermoy and Mitchelstown to benefit from those schemes so we could get rid of some of the dereliction still existing within the towns.

I have probably used much less than 11 minutes but I do not believe in filling time for the sake of it. I have covered the points I wished to make and others which I could expand have been expounded upon by our finance spokesperson. I hope the Minister will take my comments on board. I will be very happy to make the figures available to the Minister of State which prove beyond any doubt that unemployment figures have increased exponentially in these towns.

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