Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

This Bill seeks to put on a legal footing a policy decision taken two years ago that responsibilities for indigenous industry held by Shannon Development be transferred to Enterprise Ireland. This has been happing at an operational level for some time. This legislation gives legal effect to that decision and transfers shares and assets in various companies from Shannon Development to Enterprise Ireland. As the decision has been taken, I have no quarrel with the main thrust of the Bill. The legislation also deals with a series of miscellaneous items which, although interesting, are not central to the policy and can be dealt with on Committee Stage.

I would like to speak about Shannon Development's contribution and commitment to the region down through the years, which has been strong. Since its establishment, with Dr. Brendan O'Regan as the first chief executive, Shannon Development has contributed a great deal to the economic life of and job creation in the region. It has been innovative. For example, the Shannon free airport concept has been imitated all over the world. It was, in its early days, a great driver for jobs. It created innovative measures such as castle tours. Places like Bunratty Castle and other castles in Clare became magnets for the tourism industry, particularly tourists from the United States coming to Ireland through Shannon. This, too, was imitated throughout the world.

It was the first Irish region to establish strong links with the local university. It developed a strong IT industry in the Plassey Industrial Park and Shannon Airport with links to the university being the essential component. It is time now for more innovative thinking in this region. It is with some regret that Shannon Development's role has been diminished. While Enterprise Ireland is a worthy State organisation, nobody is jumping up and down applauding its success in maintaining or creating jobs in indigenous industry.

We have a serious problem in Limerick and the surrounding regions. The level of unemployment in the region is serious. Following the announcement of redundancies at Dell, workers there remain at work. The first redundancies are expected in April. Some 1,900 people, with a further 100 added following last week's announcement, are to lose their jobs. In addition, the sub-supply companies have announced redundancies of 600 to 700 workers. Mr. Denis Brosnan, following a preliminary look at the task facing him as chairman of the task force, has estimated that by Christmas 50,000 people in the Limerick region will be unemployed. This will make the region the worst affected by unemployment. We are not an independent republic. The unemployment levels in Limerick are a subset of what has been happening nationally. There is a serious jobs crisis nationally which is also reflected locally. I merely make the point that the incidence has struck harder in the Limerick region than anywhere else.

The difficulties of manufacturing industry in Ireland have been well recited as has our lack of competitiveness in comparison to Asian and European countries. Obviously, if one can get competent workers who will work for €4 per hour in Poland, one will find it hard to pay them €12 an hour for working in Limerick, which is one of the key problems. There is a further issue I would like to address this afternoon. Leaving aside manufacturing industry, the problems of which we are all aware — the Minister of State, Deputy McGuinness will be aware of this — hundreds of jobs are being lost week after week in our economy, including in the retail sector, garages, the entertainment industry and in small businesses.

These jobs are not being lost owing to a lack of competitiveness. There is no one, except one other pub down the street, competing with my local pub. People are not going to Poland or India to drink or for a weekend away in a hotel. These job losses can be put down to two crises, the fiscal crisis and the banking crisis. So far, the Government has failed to deal adequately with either of them. The issue is one of confidence. I know of many people who are as well off this year as they were last year. They may even be better off than they were the previous year but they are afraid to go out to dinner in a restaurant at night. People fear something dreadful is going to happen and believe they need to keep their money in their pockets and their savings in the bank. People are not spending. Perhaps the Acting Chairman will say how many 09 registered cars he has seen in County Louth?

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