Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

I am very pleased to reply to this debate because I understand the sincerity with which Deputy McGrath addresses this issue. I also know something of the crisis in this area because, as Deputy McGrath will recall, I took some personal criticism when I designated Ballymun as the place to receive 500 jobs from IKEA some years ago. As usual, the prophets of doom suggested the country would grind to a halt. However, local people are working there now. I commend Deputy McGrath for his personal contribution to that fight and to other fights on behalf of constituents.

The Deputy will be aware that the live register is not designed to measure unemployment. It includes part-time, seasonal and casual workers entitled to unemployment benefit. It collects data from a wide range of sources. In the past year the live register has increased by 18% in north Dublin, in line with the overall increase for County Dublin, which is quite shocking at 19%, a point seldom adverted to in debates. The highest annual increases in the local social welfare offices were recorded in the Navan Road, Finglas and Coolock offices, areas to which the Deputy referred.

For the purpose of promoting investment and jobs in Dublin, the enterprise development agencies do not distinguish between individual postal districts. According to the latest figures available, there were 1,957 Enterprise Ireland-supported companies in Dublin city, employing 5,036 people. In 2009 and to date in 2010, almost €37 million has been paid out to Enterprise Ireland client companies in the Dublin city area.

In terms of foreign direct investment, Dublin has been something of a success story with a critical mass of population, a skills pool, educational infrastructure, international access connections, existing business activity across all sectors and extensive property solutions for future activity. The latest figures show that in 2009, some 482 IDA-supported companies employ 47,726 people. Deputy McGrath might make the point, and if he did I would probably agree with him, that one of the things he is talking about is people with lesser skills and the need to look after such people.

Traditionally, Dublin has been a centre for manufacturing industry for foreign direct investment but in recent years there has been a shift away from manufacturing, due to cost competitiveness, to more knowledge-based, value-added projects in fund management, e-commerce, software and so on. Recent job announcements in the north Dublin area include the establishment of IBM's first smarter cities technology centre, which is expected to create 200 new jobs and an announcement by eBay in March that it expects to create 150 new jobs at its European centre of excellence in Blanchardstown. Deputy McGrath laid a specific emphasis on the need to create a local focus, a point on which I agree.

The northside of Dublin is also served by the Dublin City Enterprise Board and the Fingal County Enterprise Board. As part of the 35 city enterprise board network, these boards have an excellent track record in tapping into local entrepreneurial potential. Increasingly, their focus has been on the development of sustainable growth-orientated local enterprise which can deliver high quality job creation without displacement or deadweight. The current parameters within which the enterprise boards operate enable them to deliver valuable assistance to business start-ups with good growth and employment potential. Through the provision of financial and non-financial support, the boards have assisted many micro-enterprises to develop their growth and export potential as well as bringing them to a stage at which they have sufficient mass to access the services of Enterprise Ireland. More than 30,726 jobs were created in community enterprise boards between 1993 to end 2009. Within these totals to date, Dublin City Enterprise Board and Fingal Enterprise Board have assisted the micro-enterprise sector with the creation of 2,923 jobs.

Through its network of training centres and its services to business unit, FÁS works closely with the enterprise boards. It is providing many support services in north Dublin. In particular, FÁS employment services, Dublin north, has responded to collective redundancies in many organisations, including SR Technics, Cadbury Ireland and IBM. In the case of SR Technics, FÁS employment services interviewed in excess of 800 staff on-site.

The Government submitted a provisional application to the European Commission in October 2009 for co-financing support from the European globalisation fund towards the cost of a personalised package of retraining, upskilling, entrepreneurial supports and educational opportunities for the workers made redundant from SR Technics. I assure the Deputy that the State agencies promote Dublin as an attractive location for employment and investment opportunities and continue to make their full range of employment, training and guidance services available. I will conclude by adding to a point that was well made by Deputy McGrath. If Deputies in the Dublin area, in particular, were to focus in their newsletters on initiatives like those he mentioned, nothing but good would come from it.

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