Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)

I am sharing time with Deputies Joan Collins, Seamus Healy and Richard Boyd Barrett.

I commend the Government for many of the ideas in the jobs initiative. I agree with Deputy Kieran O'Donnell that it contains creative and practical ideas. As many Deputies said, with nearly 440,000 unemployed, which number is due to rise by 30,000 this year, anything we can do to stimulate job creation is welcome.

I am delighted to see the focus on tourism. I know this will be particularly welcome in County Wicklow which has huge untapped potential. I also welcome the lower VAT levels which will continue to drive prices down. Again, this should stimulate the tourism industry.

I urge the Government to track the prices of the goods and services it is targeting. There is much economic evidence to suggest tax incentives are taken almost exclusively by the seller. I urge the Government to look at prices and have a plan for getting them down if they do not fall. Economic evidence suggests that if left alone, prices will stay largely where they are and that sellers will pocket the difference.

There are many other good initiatives. Establishing the microfinance fund is a fantastic idea and will boost entrepreneurship all over the country. The stimulation of research and development is welcome. I hope it will create high paid jobs, both now and for many years to come. Lowering the cost of employment by halving employer PRSI contributions and the review of sectoral wage agreements is also welcome. I hope this will make it easier for employers to boost employment in the coming months and years. I am delighted to see the Government has targeted graduates who are in an extremely tricky position. I hope the national internship programme works and that it will be scaled up.

I wish to highlight three concerns which I will share with the Government. My first concern is with the level of funding. An additional investment of €470 million is not enough. This figure is in stark contrast with the debt of €35 billion we are paying, rightly or wrongly. We are paying €35 billion to cover the losses of private companies both here and abroad, but we are putting less than one seventieth of that amount into stimulating jobs in Ireland. That does not feel like the right balance. I know the matter is complex and that there are all sorts of pieces to the puzzle. However, one euro for every seventy we are paying to meet other people's losses does not feel right to me. We need a far bigger stimulus package. As I have outlined on previous occasions, there are various options that would allow us to do this.

My second concern is with the funding mechanism. This is, essentially, a tax on savings which happen to be in the form of pensions. It is not a tax on the profits of the pension industry, as referred to by previous speakers; rather it is a tax on savings. Pensions are not as liquid as savings or as easy to move offshore. However, a tax in this form on the amount of savings, rather than on the profits from them, like DIRT, begins to move us to a dangerous position and could, if continued, have serious implications for the banking sector.

My third concern is with the lack of targets in the jobs initiative. While the initiative contains great ideas, there is a lack of targets, although there are some. We do not know what the €470 million is meant to get us. We know targets are essential, make for better policy decisions and lead to better outcomes during implementation. We also know that we need to check that our money is being well spent. I am puzzled, therefore, by the lack of targets. If there are targets, I ask the Minister to publish them in order that we can take a look at thelm. If there are no targets, I ask him to go back to his policy team and have some. It is important to know whether initiatives are succeeding and which are the best in order that we can invest further in achieving them and stop doing the things that do not seem to be having an impact.

I will finish with a few further suggestions. The first is to publish a gender analysis. The vast majority of politicians and senior policymakers are men. There is a tendency in these cases to favour job creation in traditionally male areas. Therefore, I would love to see a gender review of the proposal.

I would love to see also a radical reform of teaching in third level institutions. Our teaching quality is low. The Government could take a variety of revenue neutral measures to improve it very quickly and the quality of our graduates.

We need to lower local authority rates. This issue has been discussed in the House on previous occasions and a vast number of potential savings have been identified. I would love to see this happen soon.

We can free up dormant buildings for entrepreneurs. A huge number of people are looking for space to create businesses and we have a vast number of commercial properties available. We could be creative and try to match these two items.

I urge the Government to consider scaling up the jobs initiative. One euro invested in job creation for every seventy spent to cover the debts of failed businesses does not feel like the right balance. I ask the Government if that is the best outcome for the 440,000 people out of work and the additional 30,000 people who may lose their jobs this year.

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