Paul Connaughton (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak to the motion. I support the amendment to it and the intense focus the Government is placing on supporting job creation through the Action Plan for Jobs. While I welcome major job announcements made during the tenure of the Government, including 500 jobs in gaming firms EA and BioWare, it is the Government's focus on exporting firms and the small and medium-sized business sector that is the real success of policy to date. This intense focus will remain on these sectors in coming months and years.

Regarding small and medium-sized businesses, the Government has given due recognition to the important issue of local authority rates. It is welcome that the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Phil Hogan, has written to local authorities asking them to exercise restraint or, where possible, reduce commercial rates for 2013. To date this year, all bar one of the rating authorities have either reduced their rate or kept it the same, resulting in an average decrease from last year to this year of 0.34%, following on from similar decreases of between 0.3% and 0.6% in the preceding three years.

Rates remain high and our focus will have to remain on the subject, but we also have to recognise their importance to the local government system, yet small businesses are the lifeblood of economies in villages and towns. Our focus must be on doing everything in our power to assist such businesses, particularly given the extremely difficult trading circumstances that prevail.

Another item which ties in with the issue of rates is water charges. The Government has committed to the introduction of domestic water charges and it is anticipated that the labour-intensive process of installing water meters on 1.35 million domestic properties will sustain over 1,500 jobs for the next two years. These new jobs will be most welcome for the thousands of former construction workers now seeking employment. Another welcome aspect is that these jobs will be spread across the country rather than concentrated in one area.

I note the social inclusion element of the contracts require that Irish Water hire 10% of people from SMEs, 10% from the unemployment register and 5% from the apprentice, graduate or school leaver sector. These jobs will be much sought after but will provide opportunities for people from these sectors who often are those most in need of employment. It is particularly welcome that one in every 20 workers will be a school leaver, apprentice or graduate, as too often young people find that they are left with no work opportunities on leaving school.

Many who used to be self-employed but are now unemployed find they have had not built up enough PRSI credits. This issue still needs to be addressed. There are too many people not getting the supports they need from their social welfare offices. For a long time, when they were employed, they paid high rates of tax and provided for the economy but now find themselves outside the circle. We need to make changes either in the Department of Social Protection or the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to find supports for them. Once they cannot get into social protection system, they are barred from the training programmes it provides. It must be remembered the very last place in which these people want to find themselves is their local social protection office.

We have had a situation whereby we have seen changes in recent years. I welcome many of the Government announcements but we must remember those people, especially those from the construction sector, who have lost their jobs. Many of these people attend clinics throughout the county. They will not re-skill or retrain in many of the areas in the high technology sector to which we have referred. We must find another construction sector but it will not be where it used to be. We cannot go back there but we cannot ignore the number of people who have come from the construction sector and who are now out of work. The Government has achieved a good deal in two years but there is a good deal more to do.

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