Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)

Eight minutes will be fine for me. I am happy to have time to speak on this Bill which, as other speakers remarked, is long awaited. The proposal was announced on a number of occasions. It is welcome although it is a very modest proposal. The overall aim, over a ten year period, appears to be that some €90 million will be lent to approximately 5,500 enterprises and during that period a possible 7,700 jobs will be created, for an average loan of about €16,000. This is worthwhile and welcome but is very modest. It really only scratches the surface in regard to job creation.

This is a particularly important area for job creation as small enterprises are the very backbone of the Irish economy. If one walks the main streets of any of our towns, villages or cities at present one sees the effects of the devastation that has been visited on small enterprises, with shops, offices and small businesses closed. Very many have been in existence as family enterprises for a long number of years but due to the current recession and the lack of credit they have had to close their doors in recent years, only doing so as the very last resort. In very many cases, and for some time, the owners have taken little or no wages from their enterprises.

The availability of this credit is welcome. Micro enterprises need credit to keep their businesses afloat and to increase in size and this, in turn, is a necessary precondition for economic recovery and growth. Research by the Central Bank has identified that Ireland is the most difficult country in the eurozone for small businesses to access credit. That has been mentioned by the Small Firms Association and other organisations representing small business. It is not before time, therefore, that this initiative has taken place.

The background to this is a very much bigger area. Although every job created or retained through this proposal is obviously welcome and worthwhile there is a much bigger picture. To reiterate, this measure simply scratches the surface in that regard. The recent CSO figures published two weeks ago reported on the state of health of the Government's job creation measures since it came to office, offering a type of report card on the Government's work in this area in the past 12 months. It was a very poor report card. It showed that job creation was in reverse in that period, that this is a job-destructive rather than a job-creation Government. There were 18,100 fewer jobs in this economy at the end of the first quarter of this year, taking the 12 month period until that date, a period within which this Government was in power. There is 30% youth unemployment and well over 14% general unemployment. Half of those unemployed have been so for more than 12 months and a third have been unemployed for longer than two years. Horrendous as they are, those figures are set against a background of significant emigration, especially of skilled, trained and educated young people who are now supporting economies throughout the world, from Australia to Canada.

This Bill is well and good but although it is welcome a much bigger job of work has to be done, one that needs considerable job creation measures. The promises made during the last general election and in the programme for Government must be implemented. We need a significant public works programme in order to put people back to work. As I stated, it is simply not good enough to say that what the Government and the State need to do is to create the right environment. It has gone well beyond that now and the State itself must create jobs. We are in a situation where the number of people unemployed and the number of jobs that need to be created can only be dealt with by the State, and only in a situation where there is a great investment strike by very wealthy people, not only in this country but in Britain and throughout the European Union.

It is no longer good enough to talk about creating the environment or creating small numbers of jobs with measures such as this. In order to put people back to work in significant numbers we need significant public works programmes, for example, the school building programme as well as a hospital building programme and a roadworks programme. Doing that will stimulate the economy and ensure that people will have money in their pockets to open up those shops, offices and small businesses that are closed in all our towns, villages and cities throughout the country.

Austerity has taken vast amounts of money out of the economy and has created a recession which, if it continues, will create a depression. There is no alternative other than the State getting involved in job creation. That would be good for the economy and the State, for families and the community in general.

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