Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)

I welcome this opportunity to address the Dáil on the increasingly worrying issue of unemployment and this Government's mismanagement of the economy. As a member of the Oireachtas Committee for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, my colleague, Deputy Arthur Morgan, recently undertook a visit to east Cork, Waterford and Tipperary to visit some of the State's worst job loss black spots. During that trip he, along with members of the Government parties, met with chambers of commerce, unions, workers, business people and community groups to establish what was or was not happening in these areas to bring about job creation.

The report compiled out of that trip is a damning indictment of this Government's ability to keep and create jobs in this State. Ten points were listed as being urgently needed to stimulate the local economy. They include a full roll-out of broadband, an investment in incubator units and research and development facilities, the provision of adequate funding to local authorities to help reduce rates on businesses, ensuring that decentralisation proceeds, making land affordable, greater co-operation between Government agencies, extending gas lines, building a fast and efficient road and rail infrastructure and making education and training a priority, with investment in third-level facilities and upskilling courses. These demands are not peculiar to that region. From my constituency of Kerry North, to Dublin, to Donegal and right across this State, we are lagging behind in infrastructure and skills.

This Government has been riding on the crest of an economic wave for the last ten years but what did it do with the surplus in our economy over that time? It allowed our economy to become almost completely dependant on an unviable construction sector and put in no provisions for when that sector would slow, as it is doing now. How foolish of a First World Government to invest everything in property. How little it must know of international markets and economic history.

After ten years of pushing this sector, what have we got? We have thousands of newly built houses with no road or rail infrastructure, not enough schools and no local community services. We have a Third World health service. We have no investment in the retraining of construction workers for alternative employment. Essentially, we have failed to provide any of the seven pillars that lead to increased ability to compete and we are running out of money to provide them.

The Government's short-sightedness and mismanagement of the economy can be seen in the promises made in the programme for Government, which include a reduction in PRSI. With unemployment on the rise, the social insurance fund is needed more than ever. Yet only last year, this Government wanted to slash contributions to it. As recently as two weeks ago, Government officials said significant additional funds would be needed to meet growing unemployment payments. The Government has yet to admit the folly of its PRSI plans.

While we agree with the sentiment of this Private Members' motion, we do not agree with some of the solutions put forward in it. Competitiveness will be restored if we invest in infrastructure but wage moderation alone cannot control inflation. Workers' rights cannot be the first point of call for sacrifice when we discuss competitiveness. In most countries which lie ahead of us in the competitiveness tables, workers' rights and conditions are protected as a content workforce is seen to contribute to a stable and successful economy. Lower wages are not an option when the cost of living in this State is so high.

I am also concerned at the reference to competition in sheltered sectors of the economy and public sector reform to boost efficiency and productivity. We had a State-run communications network and airline. They were opened to privatisation and we now have the worst broadband provision in Europe and vital flight routes are being pulled from rural airways because they are not considered sufficiently profitable. Workers' rights have been eroded and the threat of strikes is always present. The public health sector is in the process of being reformed to boost efficiency and productivity and, again, we have seen what an absolute disaster that has caused for the State. While I agree that our regulatory system is complicated and costly, we must be careful that in cutting some of the red tape, we do not create loopholes that can be exploited.

Unemployment in Kerry is a serious cause for concern, as I am sure the Ceann Comhairle can testify. The live register figures for February show there are over 1,000 more people signing on than there were 12 months ago. The bulk of this increase has come from a series of closures and lay offs in Listowel and Tralee, among them, Dennys, Tillitson and Swiss Wire in Tralee and Contact Four in Dingle. In February 2007, there were 1,069 people signing on in Listowel. This figure has increased to 1,385, an increase of more than 300. There were just over 3,178 people signing on in Tralee this time last year and that figure has increased to 3,500. The number in Killarney is 1,449. This makes these three towns among the worst in the country for unemployment and Kerry remains among the top three or four worst affected counties in the State. Over 8,000 people are now on the live register in Kerry, which is an increase of 1,125 on the figure for February of last year. This is despite the presence in successive Governments over the past 12 years of two Cabinet Ministers from the north and south of the county.

What is particularly worrying is that the loss of jobs in traditional manufacturing and processing is not being compensated for by new jobs. Time and again, I have raised the issue regarding the lack of new investment in Kerry and, in particular, the failure to capitalise on the presence of the institute of technology and the technology park. However, one of the factors I referred to earlier — the lack of broadband access in much of the county — is also clearly a factor in deterring such investment.

I have raised this issue with the IDA on numerous occasions and I appreciate that genuine efforts are being made to redress the situation. However, local people have little confidence in such reassurances in light of their most recent record and the frustration felt at the downscaling or ending of operations by some of the larger companies in the county. I, along with Deputy McEllistrim from the Government side and Deputy Deenihan, will meet with the IDA later this month to discuss the situation. All of us have worked together to try to bring about a situation where investment would come to the county and where the IDA would play a leading role. Unfortunately, the record over the past five years and even before that has shown that little or no attention has been paid to our county.

The slowdown in construction is also a factor, as is the issue of displacement and downward pressure on wages. For the first time in many years, I am hearing reports of tradesmen considering travelling to England to find work. I know of agencies which are trying to recruit local labour to work in London, particularly on the Olympic village. With the growing uncertainty facing construction workers, the availability of other employment is essential. The effects of this Government's over reliance on the construction industry and the property market are now becoming apparent. It is also worth noting that following the boom in the construction sector over the past eight years, we now have a situation where speculators have built houses which are then rented back to local authorities or Health Service Executive areas to house people on local authority housing lists. This is a clear sign of terrible mismanagement by the Government in its efforts to bring this about.

It is unfortunate that the Government did more to bolster the property sector than it did to assist indigenous enterprises in the past ten years. It has squandered the unprecedented wealth created, which could have been used to address the major infrastructural imbalance between east and west. For example, the lack of access to broadband in many parts of Kerry and many parts of our rural communities and the disgraceful lack of a proper road and rail infrastructure are consistently cited as obstacles to investment.

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