Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the opportunity to bring forward once again a joint motion with Deputy Willie Penrose and the Labour Party on the issue of unemployment, the most important matter facing us today. We have been compelled to put down a motion because the Government's response to the crisis has been totally inadequate and it appears it needs to be forced to act on the matter.

The motion demands action from the Government to halt growing unemployment and get Ireland back to work. It highlights the extent of the crisis we are facing and its implications for the public finances, and sets out a number of straightforward steps which must be taken to get the economy back on track.

Figures released by the CSO at the start of this month reveal unemployment has surpassed 400,000, which represents 402,000 families with all the social, family and financial commitments that we understand. This is, without doubt, the biggest challenge facing the State and tackling it must be the Government's primary priority. Those who have lost their jobs over the past 18 months are waiting for a Government response but losing all hope that it is capable, or willing, to act to retain and create jobs.

Almost 200,000 people have lost their jobs since the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Mary Coughlan, took up her position. She should be ashamed of this but she seems almost oblivious to the depth of the jobs crisis we face. Does she even realise that in her own county of Donegal 18,000 people are now unemployed? Where is the job creation strategy and supports for struggling small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs? With all the money poured into the banks, why are small businesses still denied access to credit?

Not surprisingly, the public does not have confidence that the Minister has a grasp of her brief or the resolve required to address the jobs crisis. The public sees a Minister and Government bereft of proposals to get this country back to work. The Government has been compared to a rabbit caught in headlights; the worse things get, the fewer moves it makes to address the problems. The Minister must explain to the House exactly what she has been doing in the year since she took up her position.

I come from a small business background and understand the pressures facing small family enterprises, which are good employers that want to create employment in the local community but whose backs are against the wall due to the lack of access to credit and the high cost of doing business. I understand the frustration at the Government's response to the current economic crisis. Like them, I know that if we are to stem the rising tide of unemployment, it is crucial that Government supports existing enterprises which provide employment.

We all know people who have lost their jobs in construction, retail, manufacturing and other sectors. The growth in unemployment over the past year has been astounding, hitting the 400,000 mark for the first time at the start of this month. Even those of us who repeatedly warned of the dangers inherent in the over-dependence on the construction sector and the need to protect workers in vulnerable sectors of the economy have been shocked at the speed at which unemployment has risen.

We are facing an economic crisis of unparalleled proportions caused by Government mismanagement and made worse by Government inaction. Other countries are also facing severe economic difficulties, but none are to the same extent as here. Economic mismanagement by the Government has meant we were the least prepared among our EU counterparts to deal with a global economic downturn.

Contrary to what Fianna Fáil argued, particularly in the run-up to the 2007 general election, the economy was not based on solid foundations. Policies pursued by Fianna Fáil-led Governments have undermined our ability to ride out an economic downturn. We can take as an example the privatisation which led to Eircom and its effect on the roll-out of broadband, or how the dependence on fair weather taxes has resulted in an unprecedented collapse in Exchequer revenue.

Every day, more people are losing their jobs, and even when they do the Government is not ready to help them. People are forced to queue for hours on the streets to sign on the dole and waiting times for the processing of unemployment assistance applications are unacceptably long for people struggling to pay bills and mortgages. Why can more staff not be transferred from other sections within the Department or from other Departments to ensure that people are treated in a dignified manner? Why has there been no action to address the plight of the thousands of construction workers denied benefits because they were coerced into describing themselves as self-employed by unscrupulous subcontractors?

Getting the economy back on track must be the main priority. No SME should be shutting down because it cannot access credit and no business should be failing to increase its exports because of a lack of knowledge of regulations or language in the country to which it seeks to export. No potential entrepreneur should be sitting on his or her hands because the funding expertise or advice is not there to bring their idea to fruition and no worker should be prevented from accessing alternative employment because he or she has been unable to access retraining or up-skilling.

Action is required to retain and create jobs and assist struggling businesses and those attempting to establish new enterprises. It is vital that Government intervention ensures that those who are currently unemployed will have the required skills to get back into employment. It is possible to do this. The Government often accuses Opposition parties of not putting forward constructive proposals but that is not the case with this issue.

Earlier this year, Sinn Féin brought forward an 80-point job creation plan entitled Getting Ireland Back to Work: Time for Action, which we believe has the potential to help retain and create jobs. Did the Minister read that proposal or any of the ideas put forward by any of the other Opposition parties? The plan included the establishment of a jobs retention fund to subsidise workers and SMEs struggling to keep their employees. We propose that this fund should be time-limited and be implemented in conjunction with an increased revenue and labour inspectorate. The subsidy should apply to each individual job and be no greater than €200 per week or 20% of the wage, and it should be reviewed after six months.

We are also calling for a body to be set up to actively pre-empt job losses by going into companies where jobs are in jeopardy to troubleshoot and offer advice, similar to the functions carried out by the Industrial Credit Corporation in the 1980s. The ICC was a publicly funded source of credit for Irish companies. There is a generation of people who have never managed a business during a recession but there is a generation which has done so. New businesses could do with advice and expertise to get through the period.

It has become clear that a change in the law regarding the leasing of commercial property is needed to allow tenants seek a rent review in order to reduce rent paid as economic circumstances change. Viable retail outlets are being put out of business due to the excess rents they are forced to pay.

We must ensure access to high-speed and low cost broadband. This should be effected, as proposed in the motion, through the renationalisation of Eircom. I agree entirely with the earlier sentiments of Deputy Sherlock in that we must renationalise Eircom to ensure all parts of this State have efficient broadband rather than just those parts which are profitable to a particular private company. There should be a particular focus on the agri-food sector, which can and should be boosted with the immediate introduction of improved country of origin requirements. Anomalies relating to sell-by dates for imported produce must also be addressed.

There is a strong case for using the public sector and direct public employment to kick-start the economy. This makes sense now in the same way as the US works progress administration did in the 1930s. That programme stimulated the US private sector during the Great Depression by focusing on tangible improvements to roads, highways, streets, bridges, public buildings, parks, reviving forestry and rural electrification. Areas that could be focused on now would include energy efficiency measures, infrastructure, including tourism infrastructure, and the roll-out of high-speed broadband.

The current economic crisis offers an opportunity to reshape the State. We need to be coming out of this crisis with the infrastructure, skills and public services that will put us at the top of competitiveness rankings and that will deliver improved quality of life for all our citizens. They are entitled to nothing less. We should be focusing on using this time to invest in the delivery of essential labour-intensive infrastructure and prioritising investment in key areas in which we have a competitive advantage on the international stage such as renewable energy.

Priority must also be given to our education system, a key to our future economic recovery. School buildings, in which there was disgraceful under-investment during the Celtic tiger years, should be made a priority. A minimum of 150 schools building projects should enter the architectural and planning stage each year, to allow them proceed as quickly as possible to construction phases. In 2007, €119.5 million was allocated to the summer works programme. This should be repeated in 2009 and maintained until 2013. The national insulation programme should be expanded to cover 100,000 homes by the end of February 2010 and 150,000 in subsequent years, creating the potential for 12,000 jobs by the end of 2010.

Sinn Féin proposes local authority and public sector construction service and procurement contracts be adjusted to create a level pitch for small businesses to tender. Breaking tenders into smaller pieces allows contractors with less significant turnover to tender for work. By not doing so, procurement contracts are going overseas to those with the capacity for tendering for larger jobs. Many Members know of local school extension projects not going to contractors in their constituencies because they do not have the turnover threshold to compete with outside contractors.

Crucially we need to fast-track business start-ups and create one-stop enterprise business points to bring together funding, expertise and advice for entrepreneurs who want to start new businesses or grow existing ones. We need to create a sales Ireland strategy to help Irish firms access export markets outside the US and Britain and to help Irish firms looking to set up manufacturing businesses with the potential to compete with our largest imports, including research and development funding.

Almost 90% of exports from the State come from foreign-owned multinationals. Foreign-owned firms import over 86% of the materials they use, bypassing Irish firms. Sinn Féin's job creation plan includes proposed supports for Irish manufacturers and producers to reach economy of scale, including on an all-Ireland basis, enabling them to compete with cheaper products both abroad and domestically through investment in new technology and production methods. We need supports for Irish manufacturers and producers to access export markets outside the US and Britain, including language and local regulation support with the increased use of Irish embassies to access local market knowledge and management personnel. It would also make good economic sense to give tax credits to companies which source Irish raw materials as opposed to importing them. Again, this matter has been flagged to the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment but she has ignored it.

Each sector of the economy needs to be examined with those with the potential for expanding employment identified and targeted. The requirements of businesses need to be identified to ensure they make it through the current economic crisis. We need a plan to expand jobs in sectors such as agrifood, tourism, green technologies and the knowledge economy. We must never return to a dependence on unsuitable economic activity such as was the case with the building boom of recent years. The Government must take responsibility for the wasted potential of those years as young people left school without completing their education to take up jobs in the construction sector. It must ensure these people get back into the education they will need if they are to get back to work.

The potential exists to get the economy back on track. We have skilled, energetic workers, innovative would-be entrepreneurs eager to establish new businesses that will create employment in their communities and unmatched renewable energy resources. A job creation strategy that can harness that potential is needed. We must do what we did not do during the Celtic tiger era. We cannot afford to lose a generation of young people to emigration as was the case in previous times of recession. Generational emigration was part responsible for holding back the economic development of this State by decades. This will happen again if the Government continues to fail to act. Skilled educated young people will not be prepared to accept a future on the dole queue.

Backbench Deputies in both Government parties should consider their positions carefully before voting for the Government amendment to this motion. Voting with the Government is effectively telling the 402,000 unemployed that its response to their plight is adequate. Such a vote, however, condemns them to a future on the dole queues with no hope of getting back into employment.

The economy can be got back on track. Jobs can be saved and created. Ireland can be got back to work. There are 402,000 good reasons for doing so. If we do not start solving the employment crisis, we will not be able to address the black hole in the public finances. Having 402,000 people out of work means less tax receipts going to the Exchequer and more payments out of the social insurance fund.

Will the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment act on the proposals put forward by Sinn Féin and the Labour Party during the course of this debate? If she, in particular, and the Government are not up to this challenge, they should step aside.

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