Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Fianna Fáil has also proposed an amendment to the motion. I wonder whether somebody injected gas into the Chamber in the past few minutes, as we have witnessed some passion, which is good. It is the one good thing Sinn Féin has done tonight.

For the last few months, we have been going through the motions when the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation has taken parliamentary questions, particularly on the graveyard shift on Thursday evenings. I hope those watching this debate see some passion.

I have enormous respect for the Minister of State, Deputy Perry, and the Minister, Deputy Bruton. We have just heard a lecture on negativity from the Minister of State. I was in his seat in the last Dáil. I saw what he did and what the Labour Party did every time they got an opportunity as we approached the 2011 general election. There was no question of them putting on the green jersey. The same business people were doing the same wonderful work abroad. I commend the Minister, who is just back from Texas, and the Minister of State, who was in New York, on attending tonight's debate. The same business people were doing the exact same work. The same brilliant companies were doing wonderful work. The same high potential start-up companies were doing a great deal of really good work then as well. They had to deal with two parties that were determined to get into government and were prepared to say anything to that end, even if it involved talking this country down.

That is why I am a little sceptical of what the Minister of State said about negativity. I believe in the Minister and the Minister of State. I believe in the quality of our people, our agencies and their staff. I had the honour of working with Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and enterprise boards the length and breadth of this country. I am familiar with the excellent work they do with companies to get them to accompany Ministers on trips to every corner of the world. It is fantastic that the Government parties have woken up and seen the value of travelling abroad. When they were in opposition, one could not leave the country without one of them giving out about expenses. At one stage, one could not cross the Border without being the subject of a freedom of information request. We need to be out there. I salute them for going abroad to work to sell the message of this country and its companies.

The Minister spoke about the Department's key strategies. The last Government and its predecessor laid the foundation for the work the Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock, is doing on the research and development and science sides. The Minister knows that companies did not decide in March 2011 to go to Ireland. The work of IDA Ireland started before that. IDA Ireland is currently building much of its attractiveness on the innovation island platform, which started before March 2011. Its work to expand the existing client base of IDA Ireland companies, encourage research and development and help companies to move up the value chain started long before then. I accept that the Minister has brought some new thinking into the Department and I welcome that. It needed to be reformed.

I welcome the work the Minister has done on retail licensing, the basis of which was a report that was commissioned in 2009. He has done fantastically to take it on board. He has run with the ball. We will have a single portal. However, he knows that the notion he loves to propogate - that the last 14 years were a disaster - is absolutely wrong. The work on many of his policies, including JobBridge and Springboard, was started by Batt O'Keeffe and Mary Coughlan under the previous Government. The reorganisation work that has led to the establishment of Intreo was started by Mary Coughlan in the last Government. I ask the Minister and the Minister of State to stop suggesting that a crock of Fine Gael and Labour Party gold was at the end of the rainbow that came in on 9 March 2011. Much of the work they mentioned started under previous Ministers and Ministers of State in their Department. I absolutely accept that they have added to that work. I am not into slamming them for the sake of it.

The difficulty is that the parties which are now in government suggested in advance of the 2011 election that there was an easier way. I remind Deputy Lyons that Sinn Féin was not the only party to do this. The Labour Party, in particular, was not immune from this. They targeted the unemployed, in particular, by saying they would create 100,000 jobs by 2016. The jury is out on that. We will measure it in 2016. We all want to sign up that target. Nobody is happy that 430,000 people are unemployed, some 330,000 of whom are full-time unemployed. Nobody wants such human waste and misery. I have a difficulty with the use of that cohort of people for electoral gain by suggesting to them that there is an easier way. Two years on, nothing major has been done to address their plight.

The Minister, Deputy Bruton, is absolutely right when he suggests that progress will be made by means of a collection of small things. I remind him that not too many small things were contained in his party's five-point plan, which was supposed to bring an end to all suffering and misery across the world. The plan did not apply to Ireland alone. It was going to bring world peace and employment. We did not hear too many small ideas then. The notion that was propagated for a year in advance of the 2011 election campaign and during the campaign itself was that everything would be easier. It has not been easier. The Minister knew it would not be. In fairness to him, he did not sign up to the particular creed to which I refer. The difficulty with the jobs action plans and the big announcements associated with them - we heard that 94% of the ambitions have been achieved - arises when the 330,000 people who are full-time unemployed look at them and ask whether there is something in the plans for them. There is probably something, in fairness, but these people are looking for jobs so they will have the spending power to help their communities. This is the difficulty with the promises, the spin and the hype.

The Minister and the Minister of State spoke passionately about what the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation is doing. There is a lot of good stuff going on. My difficulty is that a whole-of-Government approach is missing. I appreciate that the Minister, Deputy Burton, is doing some things. The further education colleges are absolutely essential if people who find themselves in a sphere in which their skills are no longer relevant, for whatever reason, are to be upskilled and brought closer to the jobs market. It is ridiculous that we are talking about skills shortages across the economy at a time when 430,000 people are unemployed. It is really wrong that the Department of Education and Skills has cut the ground from under the further education colleges that should be training those who are trying to acquire the skills needed to fill one of these vacancies. As a result of the decision to cut by 500 the number of people employed in these colleges, fewer courses will be available in areas of growth and jobs potential like cloud computing and pharmaceuticals. Many of the colleges in question will not be in a position to offer such courses this year. The options of those who want to upskill are being limited because another Department is acting in a way that is contrary to the spirit of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation's action plan for jobs.

I accept the Minister might be constrained in what he can do about the cuts in the capital programme, but he should look at the way the capital programme is spent. Towards the end of last year, an embarrassing number of Departments came in with an under-spend on their capital budgets. The capital budget is where we get the jobs. It opens the opportunities for employment creation. Estimates come into this House every September, October, November and December, to be agreed on the nod or rushed through committees, in order to reallocate money from capital expenditure to current expenditure. That cannot happen this year. The Minister should send a clear message now, in the third month of the year, that the Department will not send back any capital money. It should be spent and jobs should be created in the process. This is an issue in other Departments too.

The Minister and the Minister of State have both attended meetings of the Joint Commmittee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, which is a very good committee. We leave our party jerseys outside the door and try to get around all of these issues. Why are we cutting the legs off many small companies that are involved in procurement? Many schools give business to small local companies. Those companies, in turn, sponsor the school jersey or take out an advertisement in the programme of the school play. They are there all the time. The bizarre procurement rules are being interpreted by someone who is not in the real world of business. Schools want to spend money locally to support local jobs and investment, and possibly get a return for the school, but are unable to do so. The Minister of State, Deputy Perry, could help small businesses by taking this issue on and asking officials in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform what they are at.

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