Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I will try to be positive. The Taoiseach is as aware as I am of the critical nature of the unemployment situation. In the case of fiscal regimes which are not working because of the depressed state of the economy, is the Government considering an economic stimulus that would create jobs? When the rate of capital gains tax was set at 40%, things slowed down to a minimum but when the rate was reduced by the then Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy, things began to move rapidly again. The housing sector is practically at a standstill but reducing stamp duty to 2% for second-hand houses would give a stimulus to couples who are working and who might want to purchase. Neither of the two rates of VAT is operating at a level which the Taoiseach or anyone else would like. Does he see a potential, even over the short term, for reducing the lower level of VAT, in particular, to 10%? This would provide a stimulus to the hospitality sector, the tourism industry and smaller construction activities. Most Irish employers who employ small numbers of people would be able to get moving again because there would be an injection of confidence.

In respect of employers who want to take on new staff, how does he react to the Fine Gael proposal to abolish PRSI where young employees are hired for a period of two years? This would avoid the situation whereby young people who are emerging onto the market are forced to apply for unemployment assistance and thereby fall into a rut at a very early stage.

Last weekend, I read the comments by the chief executive officers of most of the bigger firms in the country, particularly in the communications, digital information and IT sector. All of them, without exception, said that if the country does not deal with digital information and broadband, we are kidding ourselves. We have been messing around with this for the past 15 years. In fairness, back in the early 1980s Ireland was in the top five European countries for communications capacity, but we have slipped seriously since then. Those CEOs say that if one wants the best schools and scholars and wants young people to be able to measure up to the competitiveness of their peers around the world in the next ten, 15 or 20 years, one must get the lead out, invest and do the job. The Taoiseach and I know that we have not done that job and, given the way we are heading, we will not be able to compete.

There is massive potential for job creation in this regard as well as the capacity it would give Ireland to compete internationally in future. Is the Government looking at this from the perspective of shifting priorities within its public capital programme and setting a timescale for implementing this work? Under the Coveney document, Fine Gael proposes a commercially-driven company to provide broadband and digital information capacity all over the country with a specific timeline and investment. It would be funded in part from the National Pensions Reserve Fund and from the European Investment Fund. Will the Government recognise the scale of the problem and get down to doing what is necessary? There is room for that kind of initiative, but courage is required to do it. The future lies in that area and if we do not deal with it, we will only be leaving ourselves further isolated from our counterparts both in Europe and beyond.

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