Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Last evening, a framework for a pact for stabilisation, social solidarity and economic renewal was agreed with the social partners. It was a very significant step in uplifting this country and renewing the economy. That is what all of us are concerned with in the House today. It is not merely about looking back and seeing how we got here, but about listening to the people who are working, to those who are employing and giving leadership. It is about listening to Members of the Oireachtas, yesterday and today, who had any valuable suggestions. Such suggestions can be taken on board in preparing our policies and plans and in the difficult decisions we must take.

Talking about stabilisation, social solidarity and economic renewal might sound very grand but it is really about keeping the almost two million people who are in employment in the jobs they have. It is about helping the more than 300,000 people who have lost their jobs to be able to return to work and do that quickly. It is about ensuring that we support those people who are dependent on social welfare to be able to continue and that we give them the hope and optimism they need. It is about ensuring that people who are in business and enterprise can get credit and loans and can benefit from the upturn when it comes but allowing them, in the interim, to be able to continue to employ people and continue to be able to work, to manufacture or to provide any of the good work they are doing around the country. It is about renewing and regenerating this economy and about ensuring that we can have those small businesses doing well. We have 250,000 small businesses in this country that employ over 800,000 people. They deserve to be supported because they are the backbone of our economy.

It is also about regenerating to ensure that when the major multi-nationals, the Intels, the Dells and the Microsofts, are looking for places to invest we have the relevant skills for them so that they will wish to come here.

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