Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)

This motion addresses two serious economic difficulties we have had for a number of years, but particularly this year. I refer to the rapidly rising rate of unemployment. It is unbelievable that we have lost well over 100,000 jobs in Ireland in the past year. In Donegal unemployment has increased by 60% to 70%. It is due to the fact that we have allowed things to get out of control and have charged ourselves out of the labour market. I refer particularly to the 12,000 jobs we have lost in Donegal in the past ten years. These jobs are not lost to the world economy; they are simply being transferred from Donegal to eastern Europe, north Africa, Mexico and the Far East. It is entirely due to the way we are taxing industry and jobs. The Government bears a major share of the responsibility. It will get worse unless we do something about it and enact the proposals made by our spokesman in this motion.

I represent a Border constituency, like some previous speakers on this motion. My constituency stretches from Bundoran in the south along the Border almost to the city of Derry. Every day of the week I see so many of our people crossing the Border and spending their money in shops in Derry and Strabane. I do not blame the housewife for doing that. We know that times are difficult and when they see the bargains on the other side of the Border, across they go.

I met someone last Monday who for the first time ever went to a grocery place in Strabane and spent £120 or €140. When she came back she went through the list and priced it in comparison to what she would pay at home. Her calculations showed a saving €70 on a basket of groceries. The retailers in Northern Ireland are sensible people and canny traders. Some are offering €1 per £1, which will exacerbate a difficult situation.

I met someone in Dublin last night who had been to Omagh. He went into a multinational in Dublin to buy an energy saving light bulb for which he paid 97 cent. In the equivalent shop in Omagh, he bought five bulbs for £1. That is a huge discrepancy, which the Government must address. As Deputy Hogan said, the Government has established toothless quangos, which cannot deliver the goods or control the situation.

I compliment our spokesman for tabling the motion. Small businesses throughout the country and, particularly along the Border, are in serious difficulty because of the haemorrhaging of finance across the Border. A euro spent in Northern Ireland has as detrimental an effect as a euro spent in the US, Tenerife or Spain. It is a drain on the economy and it will cost jobs and income in the long run.

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