John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I am glad to contribute to the motion and commend Deputy Coveney and Fine Gael for bringing it forward. It is an opportunity to explain that we in Fine Gael have a clear strategy that is constructive, positive, possible and deliverable, with a measured outcome of 100,000 new jobs in the next 3.5 years. As well as providing those jobs, this plan will provide the infrastructure in transport, technology and energy in a way that will protect our environment yet stimulate the economy and provide a platform and a magnet for investment in our country.

The Taoiseach this morning spoke about the important need to get the finances in order first, and said that jobs would only follow on that once economic growth appeared again. The problem with that strategy, unfortunately, is that while we wait for it to happen unemployment will have rocketed to unprecedented levels. One in ten workers, at the moment, according to the ESRI report, is dependent on the State help to survive and we are told that this will be one in five by the end of next year. The Government cannot sit on its hands and let this happen. It asked for constructive suggestions from this side of the House. I have been flabbergasted in the last half-hour listening to the response, in which have been accused of speaking through both sides of the mouth. Speaking out of both sides of the mouth was invented and patented by the people on the Government side of the House.

The Government now has a positive suggestion to consider, and all it does is provide an amendment which says we shall muddle on as we are, with no clear strategy or plan to create jobs. We have heard of a few thousand here and a few hundred there. There is no encouragement for businesses who live from week to week under the threat of closure, no hope for the well educated and highly qualified workforce that is capable of providing and guiding the growth of the economy, but will only do so if it can be kept in the country. My constituency office in Mayo is no different from that of any other Deputy, with days in recent times when it resembles an unemployment office — with young people looking for hope and a job, and a leg-up to get one.

The Taoiseach and the Government say we need to get the finances right first. That will happen automatically if we can protect the jobs we have and help create the 100,000, as suggested in this motion. It would be an enormous saving to the State. Every 1,000 extra on the unemployment register, we are told, costs €13 million per annum. A new job created contributes, on average, €8,000 in tax to the economy. One does not need to be a mathematician or a genius to see that if one projects the jobs and create new ones the finances will automatically be restored to order. The 14,000 people who lost their jobs last month alone will cost the taxpayer over €180 million in the next year. The ESRI projection of an extra 103,000 unemployed by the end of next year will cost the State another €1.5 billion on top of the €20 billion it is already paying out.

I was listing to a FÁS representative on "Morning Ireland" this morning explaining some of the schemes it is rolling out to deal with the crisis in terms of training courses. It is like trying to keep the tide out with a hayfork. In Mayo alone, the unemployment figures have rocketed by 100% in the last year, from 6,000 to nearly double that, with Ballina, a small town having almost 3,000 unemployed. We have empty business premises and business parks around the county.

I can give an example of how incompetent the State structures are in terms of support for the owners of small and medium sized businesses that have gone to the wall in recent times. I met a person a couple of days ago who had a business in my constituency until recently. At its peak, it employed 80, it was tax compliant over the years and paid millions of euro in taxes annually, yet its directors were entitled to nothing once the business was liquidated. They could get nothing by way of redundancy or for retraining and were not deemed eligible for FÁS-funded schemes. There is a notion abroad to the effect that they have stashed away millions, but that is not true. They are effectively non-persons.

We need more of a "can do" approach from Government. Let us stem the tide, accept this motion from Fine Gael and rather than letting it happen, make it happen. I commend the motion to the House.

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