Deirdre Clune (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I shall stick to my time although I hope I will not take six minutes. I support the motion which is a very important one as evidenced by the number of contributions. There are 20 contributions from those members of Fine Gael who wished to speak on this motion last night and tonight.

If one took any note of the media in the recent weeks one finds they were interested only in those who resigned from their positions in Government, from this House or the Seanad. This motion concerns the very real issues facing people - unemployment and the financial crisis that confronts small and medium businesses. There are some practical innovative ideas in the motion that, if put in place, would alleviate the problems of many who now find themselves unemployed.

It is shocking that the Government admits, putting up its hands, there will be another 70,000 people unemployed. It is failing to do anything about it. As we all know, unemployment is the result of failed economic policies. Last week I read a report produced by the Construction Industry Federation, CIF, Cork region, on activity in the region. The figures in the report underline the fact that in this country we were so very dependent on property and we let so many people down in that regard. Young people in particular were attracted away from school and their studies, lured by high wages and so much work. Now they find themselves on the dole and without any support. That point was made also on the other side of the House. One third of those aged under 25 years are former construction workers. When one looks at applications for registration as apprentices in the south west region, in 2009 the figure was 162, down from 1079 in 2006. Nationally, in 2006, there were 7,114 registrations. Last year there were only 1,000 nationally. That is only one sign of the effect on the construction sector.

I totally support the apprenticeship guarantee scheme proposed by my party. It is very important and I am glad that the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, mentioned it formally before I spoke. It is very important that those who have not yet finished their apprenticeship schemes are given the opportunity to do so. We proposed that FÁS be mandated to set up training centres in conjunction with the OPW to ensure that those apprentices would be in a position to finish their certification. It is very important to people who have gone down this road in whatever area, as carpenter, electrician, plumber or bricklayer, that they be given the opportunity to finish their certification.

Budget 2010 was very short-sighted in that there was no investment in infrastructure. There was no sign of it. In the Cork region it was depressing that there was nothing on the horizon. The payback is borne out by the fact that for every €100 million invested in infrastructure 1,000 jobs are created. Of that funding €50 million will be returned to the Exchequer in direct taxes and social welfare savings. For every ten jobs created in a construction project a further four induced jobs are sustained. By that I mean jobs in the wider economy, shops, cafes and all the services that go with and support that industry. It makes sense. A construction worker on an industry registered employment agreement's pay rates contributes €17,000 in taxes each year. A construction worker who loses a job costs the Exchequer €18,000 in social welfare payments. Those are facts that speak for themselves. I plead with the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, to process this and ensure that the apprenticeship guarantee scheme is fast-tracked because there are people who will find themselves in desperate circumstances without this facility to complete their certification.

I turn to a completely different topic, at the other end of the scale. I congratulate the Tyndall research institute in Cork which this week announced the development of a junctionless transistor that looks set to revolutionise the world of microchip manufacturing. Scientists have been investigating this and trying to develop such a transistor since 1925. Nobody was able to fabricate one but it happened in the Tyndall institute which is based on the UCC campus. The institute has benefited from investment under the research and development sector supported by the Government. The announcement this week has revolutionised transistor manufacture. Intel is looking seriously at this development and there are many leading semi-conductor companies around the world looking at this product. It is a serious and amazing breakthrough.

This underlines the need to invest in research and development and to encourage people to think and for our young people to get involved in science and technology. It shows the need to encourage research institutes to work with industry to develop products that can go out into the marketplace and be developed. This, in turn, results in relative and real employment for the future young people of this country. Fifty thousand of them will be doing their leaving certificates this year and they need to be given hope.

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