Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)

I congratulate the Minister on the very welcome plan launched on Monday of this week. Its implementation improves supports for job-creating businesses and removes barriers to employment creation across the economy. It pays attention to the key areas of supporting home-grown businesses, encouraging foreign investment and competitiveness and targeting key sectors where the Government has identified strong potential for employment growth.

The range of measures proposed by the Government will achieve the necessary growth to stimulate jobs and strengthen our economy, thereby making businesses more competitive. First, the Government has had to provide evidence to the international community and investment sectors that the borrowing and spending spree of the previous Government, which nearly broke Ireland plc and placed the country in such dire debt, is now firmly over. The Government, to the annoyance of the Opposition, has demonstrated its control over our deficit and has started to pay off our debts.

Until the Government made these critical decisions, most leading high-tech and finance companies delayed decisions about major investments and new research projects in Ireland. The first priority of the Government is to create jobs and give businesses the support they have asked for by introducing reforming measures that will attract vital foreign investment to Ireland and allow local businesses to expand and flourish.

These initiatives will attract many multinational businesses to Ireland and add to the expansion of existing enterprises. The Minister has quite rightly pointed out that, as a society, we must all become obsessed with job creation. The Opposition has criticised our plan to create 200,000 jobs over two four-year enterprise cycles as over-optimistic but we must be optimistic and look forward. As a people, we can only create economic growth if we get the country back to work. The comprehensive range of measures that the Minister introduced will achieve this.

The Government's announcement that it will not increase income tax or corporation tax is crucial to attracting as much inward investment as possible and sustaining existing businesses. We already have great success stories, such as the fantastic growth in the agriculture sector and a reputation for excellence in research and development. The latter is still recognised internationally.

The launching of a diaspora finder's fee will help tap into communities such as the 48 million people in the United States who claim Irish descent, and this will motivate investors to consider Ireland. We could not get much better than the recent plaudits from Bill Clinton encouraging investors to think about Ireland.

The manufacturing sector is the first sector of a total of 20 mentioned in the report with growth potential. The report suggests it can provide 20,000 new jobs over the next five years. I welcome in particular the establishment of the new micro-finance fund, which will result in investment in small companies, seeking sums of less than €25,000, that will create jobs.

I am particularly interested in some of the comments made after the announcement on Monday. Mr. Danny McCoy of IBEC stated the plan contained a range of practical measures that will create jobs. It is vital that all Departments work together to tackle unemployment and create the best conditions for growth and recovery. Businesses will create jobs. Our Government has a major role to play in putting the right environment in place. The Small Firms Association commended the Government for recognising the key role small firms have to play in the economy.

There is no magic bullet but the plan can promote more optimism across the economy and communities, which have been decimated by the previous Government. It will take a while to absorb the integrated list of actions on creating jobs but the plan will have an impact. All the new measures are steps in the right direction, namely, towards putting the country and its citizens back on the road to recovery, thereby restoring our self-confidence and putting Ireland back on the map of the world economy as open for business once again.

See this speech in context