Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

B'fhéidir nach mbeidh mé chomh fada sin. Déanfaidh mé mo dhícheall.

I compliment Deputy Noonan on his practical, constructive and positive contribution and I want to build on a couple of the points he made, particularly in the context of County Louth.

The first point I will deal with is the figures for unemployment. A year ago there were 7,941 unemployed in County Louth and today there are 14,524. The following goes to the heart of Deputy Noonan's point. Of those 14,524, there are only 262 who are on the back to education allowance and 189 on the back to work allowance. That shows the failure of the system to encourage people to go back to work and to go back to education. Of those 14,524, there are 4,655 under 25 years. There is a failure of Government policy in this respect and I agree wholeheartedly with Deputy Noonan. We must change the way we think about these matters. We must open all doors to get people back to work and back to education. We have many queries. There have been some changes. One of the changes was that if one got a redundancy package and took the first available opportunity, one could get the back to education allowance, but in some cases that does not happen due to technical reasons. Throw away the red tape and let the people back to education.

Being from a Border county, it is important to say this. I can speak for the main street in Drogheda, in particular, and I am sure the Acting Chairman, Deputy Kirk, can speak as well for the main streets in Drogheda, Ardee and Dundalk. In Drogheda, there are 27 vacant premises in what was called the golden mile, the business centre of the town in terms of retail and bank activity. At this stage the traders and the business people of West Street in Drogheda and in the town centre are seeking a meeting with the local authority to discuss the fact that they cannot pay their rates. They are not getting the income and more businesses will close.

The Government needs to look again at what is happening in local government, and particularly in terms of ratable valuations. In the past the centre of a town was a much better location for generating income than it is at present, and that is why such rates are higher. The nearer one's business premises is to the centre of the town the more rates one pays. However, with out of town shopping, shopping centres and commercial activities now on the outskirts of towns, the focal point has changed to some extent and we need to re-evaluate how these centre-of-town business premises are rated. We need to consider issues such as a mandatory rates cap, a rates reduction and a rates holiday. Businesses in the centre of towns, particularly in the Border counties, a theme with which the Acting Chairman, Deputy Kirk, will agree, are being put to the sword. They are being put out of business because they cannot pay their staff and they cannot pay their rates, and hundreds of thousands of shoppers are going across the Border to buy products in towns such as Newry and Banbridge. All the activity is going north of the Border. The Government is not doing enough to tackle this serious issue in the Border counties. This applies everywhere, but it is particularly bad in Border counties. The Minister of State should examine that issue, meet with the chambers of commerce and the people involved in the commercial and business activity and ensure there is a new policy to get shopping back into the counties from where the people come, and to address, in particular, the issues that are driving people across the Border.

Another issue the Government needs to address is a simple matter, the planning system. If, for example, a new business of a different type sets up on West Street in Drogheda, one must apply for what is called a "change of use". A change of use application can take up to three or six months to process. In one case recently in County Louth, because there were objections of a commercial nature, it took up to 12 months for a person to open the door of a new premises in an area designated and used for hundreds of years as a business centre. Why does the Government not examine ways to fast-track planning issues, particularly around the change of use of business premises located in business areas? The process should be much simpler. One should be able to notify the local authority of one's intention to change the use of a business premises in a business area, stating the nature of the new business and, within a month, one should receive a letter to proceed. There could not be objections related to noise, for instance, in what are generally designated areas for businesses. There should be an open-door policy to let people in provided they meet the business criteria, for example, that their businesses are not noisy, dusty or smoky. Once the business meets the general designation needs, it should be allowed to locate immediately. That would certainly create jobs and free-up availability.

Not enough is being done by the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Coughlan, on cross-Border trade. There is no agenda to change the situation for business people south of the Border. She should be much more proactive in this regard. With respect, there is a laissez-faire attitude to the issue — let it happen, we can do nothing, we will bury our heads in the sand and maybe it will all go away. It is not going away; it is getting worse. The Government should meet the business people, change the VAT rate, change the way rates are levied on businesses in those areas and think outside the box about how we can make these matters easier and better for people.

Another problem arises for those who shop south of the Border when they deal with retailers such as Tesco and Marks and Spencer. I acknowledge that Tesco recently announced a change of policy on its sterling and euro mark-up, but that is not good enough because it has been ripping off millions of euro from Irish shoppers south of the Border over the sterling difference. Marks and Spencer do it in my home town. I challenged the company recently because the sterling price was on the product. Allowing for the euro, the product should have costed approximately €6.50 but it cost approximately €8. People are being ripped off. People shopping in some of these stores south of the Border are bringing with them, not just money or their Laser cards, but a calculator because they are concerned about being ripped-off. Worst of all, suppliers from different parts of the country who may already have a business arrangement with some of these companies, particularly Tesco, are being asked to put up front in some cases hundreds of thousands of euro, or tens of thousands of euro for a smaller supplier, before that arrangement is renewed. This affects employment and good employers who supply to Tesco. The retailer says if the suppliers do not come up with that money by the close of business this week, it will not renew their contracts. That is happening and must be investigated with a hands-on approach. Representations have been made through the political system on some or all of these matters.

When people approach one with a problem about creating employment one wonders whether to telephone the IDA, Enterprise Ireland or the county enterprise board. Sometimes the agency one telephones says another agency is responsible and one goes from Billy to Jack. It is my personal view, not my party's view, that all the agencies should be amalgamated into one job creation agency, a one-stop shop with one telephone number. That organisation could allocate responsibility for issues internally. It makes no sense to have them split and wastes money and resources. We are not focused enough on how we can address all the employment creation problems people may have and to open up the blockages in a one-stop shop way.

The Government comes across as being unable to make a decision. It brought forward the budget and it did not work. It blamed international circumstances. We have had a very long lead-in time to this budget that will happen early next month. Cabinet meeting after Cabinet meeting is reported in the press. However matters are drifting and the Government is not showing the leadership, clarity of thought and decisiveness it ought to. Excluding the present Minister of State, Ministers are arrogant, out of touch and, as Deputy Noonan said, are like rabbits caught in the headlights of cars. The people are deeply unhappy with how this country is being run. While everybody acknowledges that there is a worldwide economic crisis, only one country has gone from boom to bust so quickly.

The Government predicated its expenditure over recent years on the sale of housing and property, which ultimately had to fall. It was the biggest con job of all. We often talk about pyramid selling and somebody at the end being caught. This country has been caught in the pyramid selling of houses. The people at the bottom of the ladder are the hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their jobs as a result of Government policy in this area.

The Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, has been on air recently telling the Opposition it should not tell the truth, that the world is listening to what we are saying. The world was listening to us and reading about what this Government did during the boom times. The world was listening when former Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern's stories were being recounted in the national press about the money being put in different safes and changing from sterling to euro and back again. The world listened to reports of all the rank planning corruption there was in the political system, all those who appeared before tribunals and some who will still appear.

It is a shame and a disgrace that this country has been run by the Minister of State's party for 18 of the past 20 years. I do not direct these remarks at the Minister of State personally. The people want and need a change. The only solution is a general election. The Government has lost its mandate. It is at sea in dealing with the economic crisis, is refusing to face reality and is missing out on the fundamental, practical and realistic suggestions people such as Deputy Noonan have put before us today. I look around here and the only speakers I hear are from the Opposition. I do not know why that is, but it is a shame.

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