Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)

I wish the Minister of State, Deputy Perry, and his departmental colleagues well in their roles. No greater problem faces this country than joblessness. If I were not elected to the House, I could easily be on the dole queue or working abroad in New Zealand. Many of those who qualified as primary school teachers with me find themselves unemployed. No political party has a monopoly on representing the concerns of the unemployed. We must all put the country first and put politics in the backseat for a change.

From my experience as a county councillor over the past eight years and seeing the work done by small and medium-sized enterprises as the backbone of local economies, the Government must relight the spirit of entrepreneurship which was quenched by the mismanagement of the country's finances and the recklessness of the banks. We have come full circle now where people with good business ideas and models cannot get seed capital. Many of these people tell me of such problems in my constituency clinics. The banking sector, with the assistance of independent third parties, must give those with well-researched and developed business proposals access to capital so they can create employment.

I also want to see what may be terms the "dequangoisation" of the job creation sector. I have lost count of the number of agencies involved in job creation. While the Government must get rid of the duplicity that is occurring among the job creation agencies, the Opposition should not use it as a chance to score points. Having worked over the past eight years with small and medium-sized enterprises and Limerick's county enterprise board, I know the enterprise board system works. I would like to see companies under the system which have the potential to expand having a seamless transition to Enterprise Ireland support. Such companies must be provided with a route to progress and encouraged to expand to be able to come under the Enterprise Ireland remit.

I see no benefit in dumping county enterprise boards into another quango. We have a massive land bank available to the State. It is important local authorities control this land bank and assets such as broadband and water services while the county enterprise boards under the auspices of Enterprise Ireland are retained to promote small and medium-sized businesses. Currently, business people can go to up to 12 different agencies but not one can give them straight assistance. I implore the Minister of State to "dequangoise" Ireland and get back to a single agency approach and a supportive banking sector for small and medium-sized enterprises.

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