John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I commend Deputy Bruton on tabling this Private Members' motion.

The one issue causing much disillusionment among the public is unemployment and the haemorrhage of jobs. Almost every family has seen some of their children either lose their job, be unable to get one, not even get an acknowledgement or interview or be forced to take the emigrant plane like the emigrant ship in the last century.

The Government's policy until a week ago to get the economy right was first to recapitalise the banks and then the jobs would follow. After the events of the past 24 hours, it will be some time before that happens. The young educated, skilled people of this country cannot wait for five or ten years. They need to be given some help immediately.

I welcome this recent change of heart by the Government that job creation is critical. I hope, however, this is not another optical illusion which ends like the funding for computers promised to schools by the beginning of 2010 which never materialised. One critical area in the economy which has suffered more that any other sector is the small and medium-sized enterprise sector. At the height of what was almost full employment five years ago, 50% of it was provided by the SME sector. Each of them was employing small numbers with a good spread across every city, town, village and crossroads.

These are the very same businesses that have bled tens of thousands of jobs over the past three years. These job losses have not got national headlines because they have been in fives and tens. Nonetheless, they have been the largest contributors to the live register figures.

These businesses cannot get any credit from the banks. As a result of the finality brought to the bank bailout, we have been told credit will open up again. How many times have we heard that same statement in the past two years? These businesses are hit with the same, and in many cases additional, local authority levies that they had to pay at the height of the boom even though their incomes and footfall have been decimated. These same businesses have to wade through sacks of red tape and regulation before they even open their doors.

These businesses have the potential to provide thousands of jobs but they are not given any support. Why can they not pay their local authority rates based on turnover or audited profits rather than valuations? Why are there no other schemes like the PRSI subsidy scheme – for which only a few hundred offers were made when thousands applied - available to assist them?

There is an urgent need to introduce personal examiner legislation for small businesses. Provisions could contain safeguards preventing abuses by requiring detailed financial records to be put before the courts. As a result, a small business, which could otherwise go to the wall, could be saved and jobs retained. Thousands of jobs could be provided if the SME sector got proper support. However, in the Government's economic strategy announced the other day, the sector was ignored. In my contact with young people in my constituency clinics, I am aware of dozens forced to emigrate, not going abroad for a year or being head-hunted by a company abroad.

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