Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)

On a weekly basis, small businesses are going out of business and the jobs lost weekly are almost equivalent to the number of jobs lost in TalkTalk. This is a silent annihilation of businesses and the jobs involved. Each time a business closes and a person goes on to the live register, it costs the State €20,000. If we remove a person from the live register, there is a saving of approximately €13,000. Germany and other countries have a subsidy system whereby the Government gives the business a subsidy to employ an individual, perhaps on a short week or for three days a week. Can our Government not do something similar? If, for example, €500 million was spent over three years on such a programme, this would save the State €500 million net, because many of those people would not be going on to social welfare. This would also give the State the opportunity to provide training and up-skilling for these individuals on the two days they are not working.

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