Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have watched the debate and I compliment the proposers of the motion. I look across at the Minister, Deputy Bruton, and the Minister of State, Deputy Perry. They have a huge job on their hands and they will have to deal with the bureaucratic system, the red tape and the inertia that exists, which is preventing job creation and driving out the spirit of entrepreneurship.

I took two telephone calls in the last half hour about the Construction Contracts Bill, which was supposed to be introduced this week but is again delayed. I raised that issue in the House the morning Pierse Construction went out of business, with 550 subcontractors left high and dry. These issues must be dealt with, as this is where the jobs are. These are the companies that create jobs, the small employers and subcontractors who will take on people. I looked for tax incentives in the budget and also from the previous Government, although I did not get them, for employers who employ people, for example, to carry out home improvements, so long as they are tax-compliant and have a C2 and so on. The black economy is thriving, sadly, and people do not have jobs. If small businesses took on only one person extra, the dole queues would be halved.

Businesses need to be unshackled from the burdens of the State, such as NERA and the other agencies which go around driving businesses mental. The Minister can smile but he knows what I am talking about. They were needed at the time but they should be converted to a national employer support agency in order to support people in their jobs. They should ask how they can help employers and not come with the cars flying, showing their business cards and badges and threatening employers. Employers must be supported and nurtured. It must be rewarding for people to take up a job and go to work, although not in the black economy. If there is a fair day's pay for a fair day's work, people will work. Employers will not be found wanting if they are allowed to be unshackled, as the Minister of State, Deputy Perry, should know, being a small businessman himself.

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