Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)

This illustrates the failure of the Government to tackle this problem seriously as it promised following the massive job losses in the region in companies such as Dell which gave rise to the worst unemployment crisis in a generation. This pertains both to the unemployment created directly by Dell's closure and the knock-on effect on other small businesses that were ancillaries to that major company. This stands in stark contrast to the speed with which it acted save the banks and the property businesses at everyone else's expense, the true extent of which shall never be known.

The task force made 20 recommendations, including the allocation of significant additional funds for companies and community enterprise schemes, as well as the fast tracking of local infrastructure development. Instead of implementing these recommendations, the Government has decided to make cuts to the capital budget in respect of both of these areas. How will so doing help places such as Limerick and the mid-west in general to overcome their current difficulties? The result of such Government inaction is an ever-growing tide of unemployment, despondency and emigration. There is a very effective way to cut the cost of social welfare, namely, to put our people back to work on a programme geared around the recommendations of the task force with regard to developing and improving the infrastructure of the mid-west allied to a comprehensive re-training initiative.

In budget 2010, the FÁS allowances for community employment and jobs initiative schemes were reduced to €20 and €40 per week, respectively. In tandem with this measure, the training allowances for participants were cut by half from €1,500 to €750. The Government rationale for this move was that it would facilitate an additional 500 places on the community employment schemes. A key part of any strategy to turn things around must be to devote more attention to the development of the Irish social economy and both the jobs initiative and community employment schemes are central in this regard. The social economy encourages empowerment and community schemes have enormous potential for the mid-west region, as was highlighted by the task force. It is increasingly recognised that the social economy has an important role to play in society, particularly by enhancing the economy within those communities suffering social and economic exclusion. The social economy is necessary to build a strong and stable economy but their contribution was undermined by the proposals of the budget of 2010. The result of the Government's inaction both in the mid-west and throughout the State is an ever-growing tide of unemployment, despondency and emigration. Inaction is an invitation to another recession and will leave deep scars on the region in the forms of poor infrastructure, long-term unemployment and social exclusion.

There is an effective way to redress the socio-economic problems in the region, which have been exacerbated by the closure of the Dell manufacturing plant, and that is to put people back to work on a programme geared around the recommendations of the task force with regard to developing and improving the infrastructure of the mid-west, allied to a comprehensive re-training initiative. It is clear that the Government has no strategy to deal with the jobs crisis. Although the report called, as a matter of urgency, for the acceleration of the Limerick regeneration plan, nothing has been done. The Government is paying lip service to job creation, regeneration and regional development. While it may have garnered a few brownie points for Fianna Fáil in the wake of the closure of Dell to put together a task force and commission a report in an effort to be perceived to be doing something but that is not enough now. The putting together of a report and doing nothing about it merely constitutes fooling people.

The report warned that unemployment in the mid-west could rise to 55,000 by the end of 2010 unless urgent action is taken. However, 3,000 jobs could be created in the construction process and 4,000 jobs developed under the regeneration plan. The regeneration plan was never simply about regeneration areas but always had the potential to enhance the entire city and to provide thousands of jobs. Any potential large-scale investment in infrastructure must result in construction employment. The Government's immediate priority should be to provide essential, labour-intensive infrastructure with an emphasis on the re-employment of construction workers, which is one of the hardest-hit sectors in the present downturn. This investment in infrastructure will have the dual benefit of improving the region and providing much-needed employment in construction, architecture, engineering and ancillary trades and services.

A variety of existing models can provide a template for such an approach. Throughout the European Union, labour clauses have been agreed as part of public contracts and urban regeneration projects. The insertion of labour clauses into development briefs and public contracts is leading the way and provides a linkage between public spending on capital projects and services with public policy objectives, such as reducing unemployment and providing work placement opportunities to apprentices.

Many of the recommendations in the report have a national context, in particular cost competitiveness which has a focal role in economic recovery. The failure of the Government to take on board the recommendations of the report highlights, not only its blatant disregard for the mid-west region, but its overall negative attitude towards framing a strategy for recovery. Instead, it appears content to implement huge cuts in public provision that will further set back any hope of recovery and make matters worse for those who have already lost their jobs. The Government seems content to allow ailing regions sink further into trouble and to let unemployment soar and is only too happy to throw its cronies in the banks a lifeboat to keep them afloat. The problems in the mid-west - the rising unemployment and the social problems associated with that - are not confined to that region. The spin-off of what is happening there can be seen in County Kerry. North Kerry and west Limerick are as badly affected as the mid-west.

The interim report of the mid-west task force contains many useful proposals for areas such as education, retraining and exploiting the region's natural resources to combat unemployment. However, one reservation I have about the recommendations of the report is the large emphasis that is placed on cutting pay. In its recommendations for what actions could be taken by Government to increase the competitiveness of the sector, reference was made by some companies to the need to reduce labour costs. That is an extremely negative approach that offers little to those employed in the region or for the future of the region in terms of attracting highly skilled or educated labour.

The biggest contributor to Irish economic success and success in the mid-west region has been the exceptional wealth of intellectual capital. Pay is a huge issue for indigenous enterprises, especially SMEs. Some enterprises have called for a reduction in labour costs, including the minimum wage, as part of a Government package to reduce business costs, claiming that wages take up too big a part of turnover. Given the high cost of living in Ireland, a 40-hour average week makes it difficult for many workers in the sector to earn enough to make ends meet. Reducing wages is an irresponsible and short-sighted way of addressing the cost competitiveness of the sector. The policy of reducing wages takes more money out of the local economy. How can such a policy benefit a local economy? The concern for Government is not just the quantity of jobs that is created. The quality of jobs created is equally important. Regional development cannot be done on the basis of driving down wages. Further cuts in wages and erosion of conditions and standards of employment would not be acceptable to most people in the region. The emphasis instead should be on strategic investment in the indigenous economy to take advantage of the potential that lies in sectors such as agri-food, where development and growth can be initiated based on the export market. This sector already seems to have turned the corner. This is preferable to waiting for a return to the levels of inward investment behind much of the economic growth of recent years.

Foreign investment is welcome and even necessary, but one of the lessons of the downturn is that we were too reliant on it and too neglectful of the real indigenous economy. As we have seen from the fall-out from the banking and property crisis, too much of the wealth of this country was invested speculatively and incompetently while at the same time genuine enterprises that were contributing to the real economy and employing people often found it difficult to access credit, a situation that has worsened recently despite the relative health of many Irish businesses which appear to have weathered the storm and are potentially in a position to generate new growth. I doubt there is any Deputy who has not had representations from small businesses that find it extremely difficult to access credit in order to stay afloat and keep people employed. Unfortunately, the directions from the Department of Finance inhibit the survival of small enterprises throughout the island, in particular in the mid west. This is something that is dealt with extensively in my colleague's, Deputy Arthur Morgan, report on the agri-food sector. The Government needs to implement the positive recommendations of the task force and make them part of a State wide strategy to encourage recovery rather than continue down the path of undermining public provision and further depressing the economy and setting back recovery for years.

I was shocked to hear what Deputies Noonan and Jan O'Sullivan had to say about the non-existence of IDA supports in their area. I concur with what they had to say because the same situation is reflected in my county. This is disgraceful. Nothing has been done to help. The rate of unemployment in my county is 26%, more than double the national average. Deputy Noonan pointed out that some 20% of those under 25 years of age are unemployed. This is an indictment not just of the Government but of the State bodies set up to provide employment and bring equality to rural Ireland. That is not happening and it does not appear it will happen in the short term. It needs to happen. Each day we see the result of this lack in the mid west. We see Limerick City going through a scourge of antisocial activity, with crime lords running rampant in their respective areas. This is fuelled by an economy that does not serve the people and by high unemployment, particularly among young people. We need to wake up to that, not just in Limerick City but throughout and beyond the mid west. We must be aware of the benefits of providing proper employment and incomes for people and of making proper education and training available to young people coming into the labour market. Doing that would be the best defence against our problems. I strongly recommend that the recommendations of the task force be implemented speedily.

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