Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I am pleased to have the opportunity to address this issue, which I regard as the most crucial in the current economic crisis. I compliment Deputy Penrose on the motion.

As you know, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, there are almost 400,000 people unemployed, which is almost double the number for 12 months ago. Thus, all the good work of the past 12 years of prosperity has now been wiped out in one single year's catastrophe. Unemployment is not just another statistic; it is the human face of the economic crisis. It is a personal family tragedy involving the loss of a career, damage to family cohesion, and the drastic curtailment of the provision of food, accommodation, education and recreation. The fabric of the local community is undermined and there is a cumulative negative effect on the fabric of society.

The Government's obsession with bailing out the banks has dominated its approach to the economic crisis to date. It has failed to focus on the only issue that really matters: the effect of the crisis on people's lives through loss of jobs, which deprives them and their families of economic and personal independence. Unemployment is a national emergency. Every relevant agency and Department should be redirected towards job retention, job creation, training and education.

I have said again and again in the House that the greatest requirement of the Government at the moment is to ensure there is a flow of credit to small and medium-sized businesses, which employ 800,000 people, constituting 64% of the private sector workforce or approximately 50% of the entire workforce. They are the lifeblood of the economy, yet they are haemorrhaging jobs because the banks are simply refusing to provide them with the credit they need to keep their businesses operating efficiently. Surveys conducted by ISME in February and May 2009 show that the credit crunch is worsening and that neither the banks nor the Government are prepared to take action to alleviate the situation. The €30 billion that the EU made available last October to member states through the European Investment Bank has not been distributed in loans by Irish banks to the business sector. That is a disgrace.

Clearly, the private banking system is driven solely by private gain for its shareholders and has no interest in the employment needs of the people. Thus, it is essential that we take the banks into public ownership for the duration of the crisis and that we establish a permanent national investment bank which will invest in the country, its enterprises and its people and help retain and create jobs. In addition, the national investment bank should have the remit of drawing down funds from the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. That is what these banks were set up for.

The local authorities, which have newly elected councillors with creative ideas, should be harnessed in a national job creation campaign. Already the new Lord Mayor of Dublin has announced, at her inauguration on Monday, that she will establish a Lord Mayor's commission on employment, training and education for the city of Dublin. This job creation initiative will be led by the new council and will involve all stakeholders in the capital in order to focus their resources and energies on job creation and retention. This initiative could and should be replicated all over the country, as there would be great enthusiasm among newly elected councillors and other stakeholders.

In addition, universities, colleges, institutes of education, vocational education committees and FÁS must be harnessed to create new ideas for employment and new learning and training programmes for the unemployed. Finally, the State itself should realise, as Deputy Tuffy said, that the private sector is not in a position to kick-start the economy at present as it is so encumbered by unprecedented debt and market instability. The Government should become the engine of national economic renewal and provide an economic stimulus by directly funding the collapsed public private partnership urban regeneration programmes, providing for a comprehensive programme of home insulation and improvement, and providing - as the Labour Party has called for time and again - a national programme to eliminate poor school buildings and prefabs through a major new schools building programme.

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