Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

We need to challenge ourselves to come up with a way, for example through partnership schemes or networking, whereby that talent will engage with the small business sector or, as it did in the first wave of the multinationals coming to Ireland in the 1970s, become the small business people of the future. This measure will help that. The solidarity bond is a very good response to the current savings phenomenon that seems to have taken hold in the country. I hope the Minister will ensure it is as attractive as possible to savers and provides the security for which they are looking. With regard to comments on the small business sector, a number of initiatives were launched in the budget, including the employment subsidy scheme, in which €135 million will be invested this year. The scheme has been hugely successful, with 2,700 applications. These are currently being assessed and will guarantee 80,000 jobs. This is the kind of encouragement business needs. It is hoped we will be in a position to expand that scheme next year.

There is vision in the Finance Bill. There is a vision to promote human talent and to exploit different sources of revenue and new markets, such as the finance market to which I referred. There is a vision in it for employment. What we need now, across Departments and the House, is to exploit that vision and put it into action in our various spends. The Minister has given us the leeway to do that. It is now up to those of us in Government to ensure we see this through over the next 12 months.

Earlier in the debate we heard ongoing criticism that the Bill does not do enough for the economy and fails to recognise there is still a substantial capital spend contained within the budgetary programme for 2010. That capital spend will be spent on roads, schools and in the productive sector. By exploiting that sector and the fact we are now in a situation where we can get lower prices, we should be able to maintain the physical investment and ensure job creation arises from that €12 billion. We must ensure jobs are created to the best possible employment standards and that there is no race to the bottom within the tendering process.

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