Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move:

“That Dáil Éireann:notes that:

— the disastrous economic management of the previous Fianna Fáil Government resulted in unemployment rates rising from 5 per cent in 2008 to 13 per cent in 2009, peaking at 14.3 per cent in September 2010; and unemployment rates have continued at this level under the current Government;

— the rates of long-term unemployment have increased, with almost 60 per cent of all unemployed persons out of work for more than 12 months; and the youth unemployment level is in excess of 27 per cent; and— the levels of emigration have increased over the past two years, with 167,000 leaving since 2011, which equates to over 1,600 people leaving every week;

further notes:

— in 2012 almost 12,800 net full-time jobs were lost in the economy and replaced by 14,000 part-time jobs;

— the rise in underemployment, with almost one third of part-time workers seeking additional hours;

— that the Government Action Plan on Jobs fails to have annual targets for job creation or reductions in levels of unemployment and has failed the test of tackling unemployment;

— the failure of bailout banks to support Small and Medium Enterprises, SMEs, with increased new lending;

— that as the largest employer, the Government has shredded 30,000 jobs, which has undermined public services;

— that the employment crisis has a differential impact on communities across the State and the Government has failed to address these inequalities;

— the resilience of our SME sector and our workers who have continued to work and produce goods and services in an economy undermined by Government policy; and

— the negative impact of the border with regard to realising the economic potential of our island;

acknowledges that the Government:

— has failed to impact, in a substantive way, on the unemployment crisis;

— has a role to play in creating and retaining jobs; and

— should fully support workers and the SME sector to promote growth and jobs; and

calls on the Government to:

— establish a jobs stimulus fund of €13 billion to reflect the scale of the crisis we face;

— target investment towards projects that will create employment, develop infrastructure and enhance our competitiveness;

— tackle barriers to competitiveness by:

— abolishing upward only rent review clauses;

— addressing excessive utility, legal and insurance costs;

— introducing progressive commercial rates; and

— combatting cartels;

— pledge that citizens are not forced into emigration by economic necessity; and to put in place schemes that will guarantee young people jobs, training or continued education;

— develop regional targets and budgets to promote job creation and tackle economic inequalities; and

— work with the Northern Ireland Executive to promote an all-island approach to skills, job creation and economic growth.”

I propose to share time with Deputies Mac Lochlainn, Colreavy, McLellan and Crowe.

I want to give a voice to the many skilled workers left on the dole queues, the full-time workers reduced to part-time hours and those forced to leave the country out of economic necessity. They are a generation sadly lost to a nation. The Government has made much of the State of the economy it inherited from the previous Administration and there is no doubt the years of the Fianna Fáil Government were an economic disaster. No one on this side of the House will argue with that. The massive job losses from 2007 to 2009 are clearly the outworking of the economic failure of Fianna Fáil policy. However, continued high levels of unemployment are no longer the symptom of a contracting economy. High levels of unemployment are now the cause of continued economic stagnation. An economy cannot grow and deal with the deficit or deliver first-class public services needed while several hundred thousand of our citizens are unemployed. Over 80,000 potential workers emigrate every year. Our families and our communities cannot afford the cost of unemployment yet the Government continues to follow the failed policies of the previous Administration while expecting a different result.

Last week the Government celebrated two years in office, having promised that jobs would be its first priority. After two years of Fine Gael and Labour in Government, unemployment is still at the same levels as the last six months of the Fianna Fail Administration. Some Ministers claimed the Government had brought stability to levels of unemployment. Stability of unemployment is not, nor should it be, a boast. Hitting the bottom and staying there is not a legacy of which any Government should be proud. The Tánaiste, Deputy Eamon Gilmore, said last week that jobs was the first thing on his mind when he woke up every day. This comes from a Minister in a Government that has no issue with shedding 30,000 public sector jobs. These are posts for gardaí, nurses, teachers and doctors. If it took place in any other sector, there would be a call to action against the employer. Last year, the Taoiseach announced the Government would support 100,000 net jobs in the economy by 2016. Last year the economy lost 12,800 full-time jobs. We are further away from the figure announced by the Taoiseach last year.

Over the past two years there have been significant changes in the labour market. We have seen the erosion of workers' rights, the loss of hours for workers, an increase in long-term unemployment, an increase in emigration and some of the highest rates of youth unemployment in Europe. The Government has not made good on its promise to deliver jobs and that is not surprising when following the policies of Fianna Fáil.

Job creation is not the first priority for the Government. The strategy of this Government is to sort out the banks, keep Europe happy and hope it all turns out okay. The strategy of the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, is to take one for the team in Europe. In doing so, communities, families and the unemployed are viewed as collateral damage. All the while, unemployment and emigration continues and the debt issue remains unresolved. There seems to be an acceptable level of unemployment and an acceptable level of emigration for this Government and that is fundamentally wrong. It is wrong for our people and wrong for our economy. The failure of the macroeconomic policy is replicated in the contradictory policies of various Departments. The Department Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation wants to promote the SME sector yet the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is doing its best to cut the sector out of Government contracts.

In my brief, education, we hear a lot from the Government about a knowledge-based, smart economy that is supposedly based on a well-resourced education system that is flexible enough to produce students with the skills to prosper in an ever-evolving economy. However, the Government is failing in its aim because all of the rhetoric about a knowledge-based economy is undermined by countless cuts being implemented across the education sector. Last year, for example, over 1,000 workers were recruited from abroad to fill IT jobs because employers in the State could not find enough suitable home grown candidates. The number of workers hired from outside the EU has almost doubled in the past year and it is estimated a quarter of all new IT jobs are filled by people recruited from abroad. The growing skills shortage comes when over 434,000 people are on the dole queues yet the Government is trying to entice workers to take up technology careers through conversion courses. The Government is failing to empower citizens and open up new opportunities for them through education because it lacks the vision, implemented in other EU states in recession, to ring-fence funding for education initiatives that can make a real difference. Cuts imposed on the education sector have for example, resulted in the loss of the modern languages initiative, language support services, educational resources for Traveller children and increases in the pupil-teacher ratio in PLC courses, which will lead to a reduction in the type of courses that can be offered. Also, we will lose specialised teachers in the further education sector. These are the specialised teachers we should nurture and rely upon to educate the next generation of the workforce.

Unlike the Government, the starting point for Sinn Fein is jobs. Getting our people back to work will grow the economy and tackle the deficit. It is about investing smartly and investing to get our people back to work and to enhance the competitiveness of the economy. Despite the resilience of our homegrown business sector, the private sector cannot make the investment necessary and at a scale to deliver a substantive impact on unemployment.

Prior to the budget we produced a jobs strategy document with proposals to provide for a €13 billion investment in projects that would create up to 156,000 jobs and sustain employment. They included investments in broadband, transport, infrastructural, school, regeneration, green technology and sustainable energy projects. The strategy document also included initiatives to tackle the barriers to competitiveness such as ending upward only rent reviews, developing progressive commercial rates and tackling regional disparities.

I am not for one minute suggesting we on this side of the House have all the answers in tackling unemployment, but if we consider countries such as the United States, it is clear that investment in a stimulus programme is required to sustain and promote employment. The latest figures from the United States demonstrate that there has been welcome growth as a result of investment in a stimulus programme. That, in turn, will impact on its deficit and generate spending in its domestic economy. It is clear that a new approach and strategy is required from the Government.

Last week Mr. Jack O'Connor spoke at a Sinn Féin conference marking the anniversary of the Dublin Lock-out and used the opportunity presented to call for an alternative to austerity. The alternative to austerity is not further austerity but investment. It is about getting people back to work and resolving the issue of the deficit through generating growth. The alternative is investing in the wealth of the people for their betterment. It is not about continuing the policy of Fianna Fáil in handing that wealth to bankers and bondholders. I urge the Government to stop the spin. I also urge it to recognise that in boxing off the bankers, to describe it in those terms, hoping for growth is definitely not a strategy. I urge it to begin in earnest investing fully in the people and business in order that we can get people back to work.

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