Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

The loss of almost 2,000 jobs a month in little over a year indicates the worst performance by any Irish Government in modern history. During this morning's Order of Business, the Taoiseach, Deputy Brian Cowen, seemed clearly at a loss to understand the appalling crash in the labour market and totally bereft of ideas as to how the Government should respond. That is why I welcome the general thrust of the Fine Gael motion before us, which seeks to build on my party's Private Members' motion on the unemployment crisis, considered a few weeks ago.

Every day in our constituencies, we hear of people being put on short time or being let go. Young workers, in particular, are shocked at the poor levels of support and re-training that are currently available. In my constituency, Dublin North-East, evidence of the recession is clearly visible in the monthly live register figures published by the CSO in respect of Coolock and Kilbarrack employment offices. At the former office, for example, the number of unemployed rose by 35% between October 2007 and September 2008. At Kilbarrack employment office, the number of unemployed soared by over 40% in just over a year. A cursory glance around the country indicates shocking and alarming increases in the rate of unemployment. Nevertheless, in the recent budget, the Taoiseach and Minister for Finance proposed no national or regional initiatives of any kind to address the awful decline into unemployment. Even worse, the Government maliciously attacked the available social welfare supports for the newly unemployed. My colleague mentioned the serious restrictions the Minister for Social Welfare introduced in respect of the jobseeker's benefit, illness benefit and the health and safety benefit. She has doubled qualifying periods and shortened the periods to which the benefits apply to 12 months and nine months. She introduced a miserable €6.50 increase for those in receipt of the jobseeker's allowance over the longer term. The tactic of the Government is to abolish all types of jobseeker and illness benefits.

Clearly, the looming unemployment crisis requires a combination of macro and micro approaches. On the macro side, the Labour Party is the only party so far to outline a credible programme to sustain jobs and refloat the economy. Our strategy for stabilisation and growth was an excellent first attempt to create a national recovery programme. Labour's proposals include restimulation of the construction industry through a school building programme and national insulation scheme, a new affordable housing scheme, active and dynamic labour market programmes, targeted investments in education and high-tech start-ups and a medium-term fiscal framework for the public sector. However, the Taoiseach, allegedly an admirer of Seán Lemass, has failed to grasp the need for strong national economic leadership, as he demonstrated again this morning. The Government, and sometimes our Fine Gael colleagues, at times confuse the needs associated with fiscal and budgetary difficulties with the much greater needs of the economy and society.

Several elements of the motion refer to the need for FÁS to respond more actively to the tightening jobs market. I strongly support the idea of greatly expanding the back-to-education allowance, whereby FÁS and the third-level institutes and seven universities would be required to utilise spare capacity to re-educate and further educate workers who become unemployed in the recession.

At a recent session of the Committee of Public Accounts, at which FÁS's CEO Rody Molloy was responding to criticisms by the Comptroller and Auditor General on the running of the organisation in recent years, I asked Mr. Molloy to put FÁS on red alert to address rising unemployment levels and, in particular, to take action regarding apprentices. Day in, day out, many apprentices lose their sponsors as small companies make cutbacks, yet we have created no programme to address this. The Leas-Chathaoirleach will remember that former Governments of which he was a member, when faced with economic circumstances of the kind we face today, asked the semi-State companies and larger ones, such as Ryanair and Tesco, to employ apprentices actively and have them secure their FETAC qualifications. I ask the present Government to consider this.

My colleagues, Deputies Quinn and Howlin, and other members of the Government in the mid-1980s invented the community employment schemes. Tens of thousands of citizens have participated in the schemes, retrained and obtained their first jobs as a consequence. Some of the conditions for community employment schemes have always been too restrictive. The Government should reconsider this area, particularly as part of a national recovery programme, which it should consider introducing after Christmas.

One key gain from national partnership is the national network of partnership and Leader companies and also the county and city development boards. It is now time to re-energise these bodies and give them a well resourced mandate to promote employment and local enterprise. A first step would be to abolish the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs and merge Pobal and FÁS into a new training, employment and support agency. One of the biggest acts of vandalism by the Minister of that Department, Deputy Ó Cuív, was his abolition of the social economy programme. This was a deliberate, PD, neo-conservative ideological assault on social enterprise. Worldwide experience across Europe and the USA, from the John Lewis Partnership in the United Kingdom with 80,000 workers who own their own company, to the Publix supermarkets in the US with 140,000 workers, indicate that the track record of social and worker-owned enterprise is deeply impressive. Yet the mandarins in Deputy Ó Cuív's Department ignored all this and turned social enterprise into a bureaucratic community hall-minding fiasco. The only solution for that Department is to return the Minister, Deputy Ó Cuív, to his Celtic twilight dreamland and let us get on with providing jobs for real people all across this country.

I commend the motion.

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