Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Over 52% of them are employed permanently once they go through the process.

There are other issues that need to be dealt with. Yesterday, I attended the all-party Oireachtas committee in the west dealing with jobs and job creation, the retail trade, the black economy and so on. It is only when people engage with front-line practitioners and people who are involved that they hear of the opportunities out there and discover where the blockages and impediments in the system are. That committee has been dealing with some real and relevant issues.

One might say that one of the issues taken in hand by the Minister of State with responsibility for small business, Deputy Perry, is the complexity and difficulty involved in small and medium enterprises setting up businesses and keeping them going. It involves the number of licences they must apply for and the red tape, bureaucracy and cost involved in that. By the end of this year, there will be a single portal for applications for small and medium enterprises to save them money and spare them red tape and bureaucracy. This was done in Chicago and Singapore and will hopefully be piloted in a number of areas throughout the country by the end of this year. They are some of the issues.

Clearly, the €20 billion in savings over the next ten years from the promissory note agreement was important, as were the liquidation of IBRC and Irish Nationwide, the ending of the bank guarantee scheme, deposits returning to Irish banks, the disposal of the State's €1 billion holding in the Bank of Ireland at a profit of €10 million, the sale of Irish Life for €1.3 billion with an additional dividend of €40 million paid to the State and the establishment of a new bank resolution fund to protect against future instability. These are important issues.

As I said in response to an earlier question, I would like to think that the stimulus package announced by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform last year will result in due course in a serious number of jobs in the construction of primary care centres, schools, the major development at Grangegorman in the city centre and a new and long-desired State pathology laboratory and in upgrading the national motorway network with a further €850 million, all helping to create jobs and spread that money through the economy. I agree that dealing with the national economy is the challenge facing Government because our international reputation has been restored and the international economy is running very strongly with profits, the numbers employed and exports increasing. The line of investment into the country remains very strong which feeds into many of the small and medium enterprises who specialise in servicing those industries.

Our challenge is to deal with the live register, the perception of which the Minister for Social Protection has made radical changes to in addition to its competence and status as a resource for employment. We will also provide opportunities to access to credit for small and medium enterprises; cut costs, red tape and administration; and prove it can work. It is in this way that confidence is restored, not to mention the difficulties people have experienced with mortgages.

The Deputy mentioned universal health insurance. The future health road map was published and will lead to that. We have said that universal health insurance would be at the end of the lifetime of this Administration. The legislation to abolish the Health Service Executive is proceeding through the Oireachtas. The "money follows the patient" proposals have been published and will enable us to move to a more equitable system of resource allocation so that people get medical care as close to them as possible based on their medical needs. The special delivery unit piloted by the Minister for Health has made substantial progress. At the end of 2012, there were 20,000 fewer people waiting on trolleys, which was a reduction of almost 24% on 2011. The number of adults and children waiting for surgeries was reduced by 95 over the year. The risk equalisation scheme commenced in 2013. The new deal, which deals with medicines, and Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Bill will lead to a reduction of over €400 million over three years. These are important decisions made as part of restructuring to bring about a more effective and efficient health system. The Government decided to make the St. James's Hospital campus the location for the national children's hospital. The budget for the National Office for Suicide Prevention increased to €8.1 million in 2013, up by €4 million. A number of persons were employed to work in that body. I could go on about different sectors but Deputies may want to ask other questions.

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