Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)

I will try to be succinct. I welcome the opportunity to discuss job creation and the jobs crisis. I thank the Members from the Technical Group and also those from Sinn Féin who tabled an amendment to the motion.

Recently, I had a conversation with a trade union organiser in the construction industry who visited a site with a public contract to monitor whether workers were registered on the CIF-CIC pension scheme. Not a single worker was paying into the scheme. The site was being worked by contractors and sub-contractors who were employing almost exclusively workers from across the Border.

Again, at a meeting I attended recently with building workers the point was made that they cannot obtain employment due to contractors who are engaged in the black economy. It makes a nonsense of the investment in so-called shovel-ready projects. The investment levels are paltry compared to what is required. We must address the fundamentals in this economy where approximately 500,000 are unemployed. Reference was made previously to the number of people who are emigrating.

Schemes such as JobBridge, internships and work on SMEs are all small tinkerings with the system that can play a tiny role in terms of getting the economy back working. The collapse of the construction industry has had a significant effect. At least one in every three of those thrown on the dole during the crisis was a construction worker. Due to the property bubble we had an unsustainable lopsided economy with one in every seven male workers employed in construction. That means there is a need for extensive retraining programmes, but the most effective way to make an impact on the dole queues is for the setting up of a public works programme aimed at taking construction workers off the dole. Such public works could include an integrated rail and transport network for major cities, including metro north and metro west, on which we heard the announcements that they would not go ahead.

Carbon emissions in this country are double the agreed Kyoto levels. Carbon credits will cost the Irish economy approximately €1 billion in the next five years. There should be a programme to make all public buildings energy efficient. I refer to hospitals, schools and offices. There should be a national programme for housing insulation and the construction of a network of primary health care centres to reduce the pressure on accident and emergency units in hospitals. There should also be a programme to provide social housing, schools, crèches and community facilities. Such programmes would help upskill building workers and every building worker off the dole would help to cut welfare costs, increase the tax base and improve consumer demand leading to other job gains.

To eliminate the black economy element from construction the programme of useful public works should be carried out by a State construction firm using direct employment with construction industry registered employment agreements as the basis for pay and conditions. That is what is really needed to fundamentally get the country back working.

The capital programme for 2010 to 2016 has been cut by 60%. Fianna Fáil's four year plan to 2014 is now being implemented by the Government. There is an envisaged capital spend of €3.5 billion, which is a mere 1.9% of GDP. We need a State investment programme with direct employment and real jobs.

There is a problem with some schemes that take people off the dole such as Tús Nua. It pays only a small amount above the welfare payment for transport but people are being put on emergency tax which can take a number of weeks to sort out. People on welfare, especially those with families, cannot afford to be the victims of such bureaucratic cock-ups. Perhaps someone in government would examine the issue.

Unless we deal with the issue head-on, we cannot sustain the mountain of debt both in the economy and in terms of mortgages. We must look seriously at a writedown of the debts. We must propose a jobs programme along the lines I mentioned and get the money from Europe even if it means getting a low-interest loan for it and pump the money into the economy. It is the only way to deal with the problem. Otherwise, we will see the problem trundling on while the can is being kicked down the road. This country will grind to a halt under the mountain of debt and austerity.

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