Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

One of the last phrases in the document read out today was that this was a modest proposal. It was not an overstatement. Seven or eight Deputies are in the Chamber. This initiative is about giving hope to people outside the House, but I do not see where the hope lies. A number of these small initiatives are worthwhile, but the scale is modest. I did not bring notes with me when I came to the Chamber, but I listened and made some notes for my response. I was worried before this debate, but I am slightly nearer to being terrified side at this stage. Were I one of the 440,000 people in question or a member of their families, I would be really worried.

I know what I expected to see, given how people were told on their doorsteps during the election campaign that there would be €2 billion in a strategic investment bank - the Government was told that this might not be a good idea - and shovel-ready jobs that would put thousands of construction workers back to work on large projects. There is no evidence of this despite the fact that it relates to one of the severely affected sectors.

Approximately 60% of all jobs are in the domestic economy, yet we rely on an export-led recovery predicated on foreign direct investment, FDI, companies, namely, the multinationals. I do not know how the Government can deliver on jobs if this is what it is relying upon. The small to medium-sized enterprise, SME, sector is where jobs will be provided. If every SME created one job, it would go a long way towards resolving the problem. A specific problem relates to the banks and securing finance. It is one matter to claim finance will be available, but the type of financing is important. There is no point in giving term loans if overdrafts are necessary.

I am greatly disappointed by the provisions regarding the sectoral wage agreements. "Flexible" and "adaptable" are code words for reducing people's income levels. The €356 threshold for employers' PRSI is just above the minimum wage, yet the Government is setting it as an appropriate target. It is much too low. While I accept there must be a limit, this will reduce the amount of money available to go back into the economy via the jobs created. I do not see how it will deliver the kind of return we need.

The €470 million to be raised in the coming years via the pension levy is a raid on pension funds. It is not targeted at the people who benefited the most from tax incentives that encouraged people to invest in such schemes. Some schemes have lost considerable amounts and some are insolvent. It is not that long since people had the daylights frightened out of them by television advertisements telling them to put money into pension schemes because they would be poverty-stricken when they were elderly. We are now telling them to put money in and that we will take it out. This is a bad message.

The tourism sector is being targeted. The UK and the US have been mentioned as markets we have lost, including a 32% loss in the number of trips from the UK. If one asks people in the UK about where they will go on their holidays, the answer will be anywhere outside the eurozone because their currency has been devalued. It is not a question of Ireland reducing the cost of rooms, although this is a contributing factor. There is good value in terms of restaurants and so on and people have responded, but the issue is the difference between sterling and the euro. This is the main difficulty we must overcome if we are to encourage the British to visit Ireland.

I would have liked to see other provisions. In terms of local schemes, 800 km of roads will be improved. This equates to approximately 30 km per county. If we are discussing modest, then this is modest. Could some consideration be given to the level of return we will receive for this modest investment? That 30% of all money invested by local authorities in road improvements goes towards health and safety matters is problematic. It is too much money and, although I would not want to put anyone at risk, the issue must be revisited.

I would have liked to see social welfare changes. For example, one must wait 12 months before one can qualify for the back to work scheme. People have told me that they would have loved to have returned to work or started their own business, but that they lost their entire network of people, their confidence and so on as a result of waiting the 12 months.

In February, Kildare County Council ran out of the money it was using to fund the microeconomic sector. If someone is putting together a viable business, funds must be available. We are underfunding the microeconomic sector. Even if someone drafts a business plan or feasibility study, new start-ups will have less chance of succeeding if we do not invest the level of work required. We have missed the boat.

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