Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to make a contribution on the Finance Bill. The Minister said yesterday that we were setting the seeds for economic recovery and new job creation. Over the past two years, all Members, particularly Opposition Members, have been saying that the most important factor for recovery for the country is job creation. We need more jobs. However, the Government does not seem to have the slightest semblance of a job creation policy. Nothing the Government or any Minister has done indicates they have a job creation policy. Until that happens, the road to recovery will lead nowhere. The green shoots we heard mentioned are no longer green, despite the many opportunities that exist for the Government to act with regard to job creation.

In addition to the failure in the area of job creation, there is an issue with regard to finance being made available for small businesses. In constituencies throughout the country we all see small businesses folding. Yesterday, we heard of the 750 job losses in Halifax, Bank of Scotland (Ireland) and of job losses in Galway, the main industrial pivot of my county. These major job losses get the headlines, but small businesses in every town and village are, slowly but surely, shedding jobs. These all add up to a significant number and should not just be seen as a figure. Behind each job loss lies a family and the people connected to that family. In this Finance Bill, the Minister has clearly lost sight of these facts.

The director of Financial Services Ireland, Brendan Kelly, said recently that attracting senior staff to Ireland is essential to get firms to set up here and create jobs. That is all very well as a statement, but with no disrespect to the expertise that might come here from outside, we have never had as many people with the highest qualifications possible in every sphere of industry and technology as we have now, but they still cannot get work. As a result, they are leaving the country. If we look at our unemployment statistics, we see that the greatest proportion of those out of work are young people under 30 years of age, yet these are a great reserve of expertise in many areas. We must plead with the Minister to deal with this issue once and for all. He must return to this issue and provide a policy. Even if it costs money, he must do it in order to provide employment. The Minister has said that by the end of this year we will have a 13% rate of unemployment. Tragically, the rate will not stop at 13% judging by the current trend. We are only two months into 2010 and there has already been a significant increase in unemployment.

The Government has failed miserably to tackle the banks. We were promised 18 months ago and even a year ago that the Minister would, through intercession with the banks, make resources and finance available to small companies to help them develop and carry on in business. That has not happened. Until it does and until pressure is put on the banks, they will continue to claw back their losses in every way possible. Overdraft facilities and other accommodations available in the past have been withdrawn and businesses are collapsing. We can see from what is happening in our courts day after day that companies are going into examinership or being liquidated. This cannot be allowed to continue. The only intervention that will work is for the Minister to direct the banks to accept their responsibility. They lent the money before when they wanted to create competition, but now they are looking for the money back at the expense of small businesses.

The Minister's token response to the issue of people with incomes of over €1 million per annum was to impose a levy of €200,000 per annum. This is only a token gesture and is only a pretence to the electorate that something is being done. The Minister must get his act together in the interest of the many people who will lose their jobs and those who have put their hard-earned money into businesses that will go to the wall.

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