Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State mentioned the small business advisory group. Small business will be the engine of recovery. Yesterday, Senators Feargal Quinn and Mary Anne O'Brien hosted a briefing by those who make up the small business advisory group in their independent capacity on the proposals - or kite flying - by the Minister for Social Protection on employee sick pay. Her suggestion has been floating around for a while now that she will completely change that regime. Small businesses are incredibly nervous about the potential impact of that proposal on existing business and their ability to create employment, even if we enter a phase of growth. What is the Minister of State's view on this issue? Has the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation taken a view on those proposals?

What are we doing at EU level? As a small country with one of the most open economies in the world, are we brave enough to bring proposals to the EU to challenge it to act on unemployment as a bloc in the way we saw the US Federal Reserve acting this week? As well as getting the deals we need on banking and fiscal debt, we must get a programme to deal with unemployment.

I am not in the business of creating expectation but last December the Taoiseach, referring to the end of year figures, said that he hoped by the end of this Government that anyone currently long-term unemployed will have re-entered the world of work or become involved in upskilling or a change in direction. Of the 308,500 people unemployed, 60% are now long-term unemployed. How many of those will have a job by the end of 2015?

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