John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. I have listened with interest to some of the contributions made from all sides of the House. I am not in the least interested in negativity. I only wish to see an improvement in quality of life for people and an opportunity for them to re-enter the workplace. The more people there are unemployed, the less chance there is of the economy getting an uplift. However, we must face reality also.

The previous Deputy criticised Fianna Fáil, but there were many road and school developments, while social welfare rates were substantially increased, rightly so. It was only right to improve quality of life for people on social welfare at a time when the finances were strong. Thousands of extra special needs assistants and primary and secondary school teachers were recruited, all of whom were important in meeting the growth in the population in the country at the time.

Several key reports and economic statistics have been delivered in the past month. Taken together, they indicate that the economy is bouncing along the bottom, a far cry from the prediction of the Minister for Finance who said it could take off like a rocket. It is welcome that the Minister is in the House and perhaps at some stage during his reply he might inform us when he expects the economy to take off like a rocket because it is in all our interests that this happens sooner rather than later.

The Government appears to be in denial about the true state of the economy and the public finances. The mantra is that we are meeting all our targets under the programme, but, in fact, we continue to miss several key targets. A confused message is being delivered to our EU partners. At times they question why we need a reduction of our bank debt if we are performing as well as we claim.

There is clear evidence that there is a two-speed economy. The domestic economy is shrinking, while exports driven by foreign direct investment have performed reasonably well during the past year. This is welcome because the more direct investment we attract, the more exports we will produce and the more jobs will be created. However, the domestic economy is suffering greatly. This is evident in every town, where domestic spending is well down. Shops are closing at an alarming rate in every small town and in many large ones because there is not the money to spend at present. I have noticed in recent months in my town of Enniscorthy that at least half a dozen shops have closed down. People tell me they are not spending and even those who do have money do not have the confidence to spend it. As a result, shops are closing and jobs are being lost. Now the Government is considering reductions in social welfare payments and introducing extra taxes and so on. Such measures will further erode the spend. There will be household, water and septic tank charges, all of which will substantially reduce the level of spending in 2013 and beyond.

Since coming into office, the Government has undertaken the jobs initiative, a jobs-friendly budget and an Action Plan for Jobs. However, in the past 12 months the number working has fallen by 1.8% or 33,400 to now stand at 1.78 million. Some 1,200 jobs are being lost per week in 2012.

I welcome that there has been a number of job announcements in recent times, such as with Kerry Foods, and again in Louth today. There seem to be jobs announcements for certain parts of the country and other parts of the country are being excluded. Sometimes I think that neither the Government nor IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland recognise that my home county of Wexford is a part of Ireland and think that it is an outpost on the outskirts of Wales because we are certainly not getting any jobs announcements. Neither IDA Ireland nor Enterprise Ireland is taking any interest in us. The only jobs announcement in the past three or four years was a number of years ago when Coca Cola announced a 100 job company was to set up in Wexford. That company has now set up, but all of the major jobs announcements in the pharmaceutical sector, in companies such as Kerry Group and in other such areas seem to be going either to the major cities or to counties adjacent to major cities. It is important that counties like my own would get an opportunity and that Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland would show more interest. I understand from a recent parliamentary question that the number of visits to Wexford for a two-year period was nil and I would question the ability of Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland to be fair in how they encourage companies to look at sites in counties, where there is a high-scale loss of jobs and where many are unemployed.

My county depended heavily on the construction sector, which has fallen through the floor. There are significant numbers of young people who left school at a young age, such as 15 or 16 years, when there were good earnings in the construction sector. They did not avail of the education facilities at the time. The lure of high earnings attracted them. Now they have neither a building skill nor any kind of skill. It is important that the Government would provide facilities to upskill and retrain them in that area for the jobs that might be available. Farming and the food sector is an area where there are considerable opportunities. There are opportunities in the wind and wave energy sector, and also for those with IT skills. We need to provide educational facilities that will encourage people to be retrained and re-skilled because too many are emigrating. There are considerable numbers - 50,000 or 60,000 young people emigrate a year - now in Canada, Australia and other parts of the globe when they should be working in their own country having been highly educated at home. There is a need to re-examine how we look at job opportunities, investment in jobs and job creation.

Recently, I read the Goodbody report. Sometimes I do not pass much heed of economic reports because some of them are usually very negative but Goodbody stated recently that it was downgrading its outlook on growth to 0.3% of GDP in 2012 and 1.3% in 2013. It also looked at the true state of unemployment and disagreed with the official reported rate of 14.8%, arguing the true rate of unemployment is closer to 20%. A major concern to all of us are those who are long-term unemployed. They are finding it difficult to get back into a position where there might be job opportunities available to them. It is an area at which we need to look.

An area on which the Minister for Finance has been working is funding for SMEs and bank lending. Bank lending seems to be at a standstill right across the country. Every week at my clinics - I assume it is the same in every other clinic - small business proprietors who would never have thought in the past of coming near a TD or a public representative are now coming in and stating the serious problems they are encountering with banks in trying to acquire loans to further develop their business or, indeed, overdrafts to survive in the present climate, only to find the door is being closed on them.

Also, I encounter a significant number on the housing list or in rented housing accommodation who wish to buy houses. As the Minister will be aware, house prices are at an all-time low. It is a trait of Irish people dating back generations that they like to buy and own their own home. Many are in a position to acquire loans but when they go to the bank, even though perhaps both the husband and wife are working, they find either the door closed in their face or they are offered 60% of the price whereas they probably need 75% or 80%. One could see a substantial increase in house sales and house building in certain areas in this country if the banks would only lend to those who are in reasonably good jobs and would be in a position to repay. There seems to be a "we shall not lend" attitude in the banks at present, regardless of the borrowers' ability to pay back. That is an area in which there should be further Government intervention. I understand that representatives of the Government, from the Taoiseach and the Minister down, have met the banks on a number occasions but there seems to be no movement or change of attitude in the banks. Certainly, this is an area that would generate house building. It would also create employment, if people were given the opportunity to buy their own houses.

I welcome the debate. It gives us an opportunity to put forward suggestions and ideas. It also gives us an opportunity to encourage the Government to change direction and to ensure that funding is available for the people of this country.

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