Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

Employment is the number one priority for every Member of the Dáil, so it is essential that the measures taken result in job creation. I wish to focus on a few areas starting with the county enterprise boards. This is a micro-sector featuring up to ten jobs in any enterprise. This area is aimed at a person who may have lost a job and is thinking of setting up a business. The 35 county enterprise boards have local flexibility which is an asset. Each of them is set up as a limited company which means that each one must prepare its own full set of accounts. In addition, they have their own websites and prepare 35 annual reports which must be translated into Irish.

I will now focus on Kildare which is the fourth most populous county in the country. People might not realise that but it has grown substantially to a population of 209,000 according to the last census.

Kildare County Enterprise Board had not had any funds available to commit to projects in 2011. In recent months I asked a series of parliamentary questions seeking information as to what happens to county enterprise board surpluses. I was informed this money cannot be transferred to other enterprise boards. What typically occurs is there is a stipulation late in the year that the money must be spent before the end of the year. Therefore, it becomes a joke because the money cannot be used when the allocation is so late in the year. This practice must change.

I recently asked the board how it deals with people who ask for funding during the year when the money is not available. I was informed that the board will advise them to submit an application but in reality, people are so busy that they do not submit an application.

For those who decide to make the leap from welfare to work, there is a significant risk that if the business does not succeed they will be exposed without the cover of welfare payments and anyone leaving a job to become self-employed is even more vulnerable.

The county enterprise boards should be amalgamated into a single limited company and use the money saved on administration costs to spend on job creation. Our welfare system must be more flexible and more inclusive for the self-employed.

I refer to a report on "Morning Ireland" this morning about a man who has set up a unique business providing on-site blood testing for the equine industry. He made the point that he had received a lot of assistance from Enterprise Ireland but all the banks did was talk to him. He was of the opinion that the banks did not know how to lend to business. The banks are stuffed with cash but according to an article in today's Irish Independent, eight out of ten mortgage applications are refused. There is ample evidence that the banks are not lending to business. AIB is looking to increase the cap of €500,000 on the salary for its chief executive. I thought we were to have a change in the culture of the banks. Unless there is a change in attitude in the banks we have no hope of recovery because jobs cannot be created without money. The recapitalisation of the banks was to ensure they could function as banks but they are not doing so. We either wholly own or control these banks and if they are not working then the Government must address that issue now.

The internship scheme works well in some countries and I am not opposed to it in principle but there are major flaws in the design and operation of our current scheme. I listened carefully to the Minister and I agree with some of the points she made. However, it appears that the scheme is being used in some instances to recruit experienced people and this in some cases could be described as job displacement. There is no apparent economic test to determine if a job could be provided rather than an internship. People at both the top and the bottom are being abused.

I was informed about advertisements for jobs for solicitors asking for six years' experience. However, the Legal Aid Board was recruiting for solicitors. In a reply to a parliamentary question the Minister stated, "I can confirm that the Legal Aid Board is actively participating in the scheme and this is a development that I very much welcome." It is either an internship scheme or it is not. This confusion is what gets the scheme a bad name.

I remind the House of what the Government parties said before the general election compared with the actions taken since then. At last year's Fine Gael Ard-Fheis, its finance spokesman said, "the creation and retention of jobs is the only way to get the public finances out of the current crisis". It is not good enough to say that it is a top priority because Fine Gael is now the senior party in the Government. This must translate into actions which result in the creation of jobs. The tourism initiative was welcome and it showed that investment brought returns but it was too little and more needs to be done.

In early February, the Labour Party spokesperson, Deputy Joan Burton, said: "Austerity and cuts alone, as we know, will not do the job. Whatever savings have been made by cuts have been eroded by the fact that growth rates keep falling....Labour is planning to use €2.8 billion in the National Pension Reserve Fund for shovel ready projects and then the €2 billion remaining in the fund towards the creation of a strategic investment bank."

Less than a year ago, it was reported that Deputy Eamon Gilmore stated that while the €6 billion in cuts aimed to convince certain institutions that the Government was earnest about making fiscal adjustment, no growth resulted from the €4 billion cuts last year. In the same article he highlighted warnings that companies that were successful have invested their way out of a recession and not tried to save their way out of it. I ask if we can have that Eamon Gilmore back.

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