Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I suggest we get a few facts straight. Between 2008 and 2011, 250,000 people lost their jobs in the private sector. The Deputy chose not to mention that statistic. He chose not to mention the mess we were left to deal with. Some 1,000 private sector jobs are now being created per month, for which I am grateful, as it is a sign of confidence returning. No one on this side of the House has talked about green shoots or corners being turned because there is a long and difficult road ahead. I refer to the woman down the street who runs a small shop. She has had five very difficult years. In her opinion, if she were to walk up O'Connell Street with a placard stating her shop would close unless the people bought her merchandise, she would get very little sympathy. Some 250,000 jobs went between 2008 and 2011. That is the reason there is no magic wand to restore the numbers of jobs to which the Deputy refers. I advise him that what he said about the numbers is incorrect. Of the 420,000 people to whom he referred, 90,000 work part-time. The real figure is 330,000 people who, unfortunately, are out of work and on the live register. The second point is that the monthly movement of numbers on the live register is extensive.

On various occasions the Deputy was in north-west Mayo with some of his people. I remind him that 200,000 people, mostly men, were employed there over a period of ten years. This employment transformed the economy. There are significant numbers of people working on major construction projects in different parts of the country, but the level of employment is nothing like what we want. Even in the days of national squandermania, there was a cohort who remained unemployed when, technically, the country had reached full employment. It is also a fact of life that interest rates have come down from over 14% to less than 4%. The Deputy might not regard this as important for business, but, in fact, it is. The agreement with the ECB and the projected savings in the next ten years are significant and also an important sign of confidence returning.

I recently received the president of a group in Catalonia. Over 52% of young people are unemployed in Spain. Many have moved to Germany to work in engineering, but there is frustration and anger among the young unemployed. We included in the MFF proposals provision for a fund of €6 billion to deal with youth unemployment. I do not like to see anyone being forced to leave the country. There is a campaign under way in the United States to look for comprehensive legislation on immigration and pathways to citizenship. When I was growing up in County Mayo, emigration was a normal part of life, although I do not suggest that should be the case now. I met Irish people in China and other countries who were in those places by choice. They want to gain experience and use their skills and talents. I hope they will return to this country when they have gained that experience. The people for whom I feel sorry are those who believe they have to leave because they have no hope. That is why the Government must get the fundamentals right when sorting out the country's financial position, while also creating the opportunity and environment in which to do business.

I refer to a local example which caught my attention a day or two ago. An unemployed construction worker opened a bakery in the west. He took a course in Ballymaloe and now has 15 unemployed construction workers working in the bakery. This enterprise attracted one of the biggest investments - €200,000 - ever made in the history of "Dragons' Den". Because of the quality of the product he is producing, he is supplying multinationals and bigger stores in the country. That has been the result of his initiative.

Yesterday I launched four initiatives born out of current research and innovation. While these initiatives might be small and may not be of interest to the Deputy, people are being employed, men and women who now have an opportunity to go out to work every morning, expand their enterprises and sell abroad. I visited the offices of Google recently. I refer to the challenge set by it last year to have 10,000 new sellers on-line within 12 months. That objective was achieved. Many people in towns all over the country think that if they set up a website, it will work automatically, but that is not the case. However, the world is wide open to receive their wares and they need to be able to access that market.

There is more than one issue. We are all interested in hearing ideas on job creation. That is the reason I was so pleased last year when the Kerry Group which began in Listowel in 1972 set up a world-class innovation centre in Naas worth €100 million which was devoted to food research. It will become a magnet for blue chip companies from all over the world. It will employ young people, scientists, researchers, innovators and creators. These initiatives send important signals about the country.

Nobody on this side of the House will say we have beaten the unemployment problem. However, of all the Ministers for social welfare, the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, has shaken up that Department. She has developed an understanding of the resources, talent and experience available among the 330,000 unemployed, the vast majority of whom want to work and deserve the opportunity to experience the new way of interacting with people in order that working will become a reality.

I hope Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett will go down to his local bank manager - or bank managers - to ask him or her or them what he or she has or they have loaned in the last quarter. New targets have been set for the banks. The pillar banks have a target of reaching a figure of €4 billion in new lending in this year. I have talked to Deputies from the different parties, some of whom tell me that they know of half a dozen companies which were unable to access credit, perhaps because their applications were incomplete. Other Deputies say they have proof of money being available and they can give the names of those who received loans. It is a case of being very clear with the banks. That is why we interact with the regulator on a regular basis.

Ours is not a programme of austerity; rather, it is one of change and development to sort out the country's problems and deal with the issues we all want to see being resolved - unemployment and job creation. I would like to think the next stimulus package will be used for the building of schools and primary health care centres and whatever else in order that people around the country will see that things are happening and that we will see contractors building and investing in the future for our children and those who will come behind us.

That can only happen where the economy is running efficiently to attract investment and deposits and where there is flexibility that gets people off the live register and into the world of work. The best news a Deputy will get in his or her constituency is not simply the announcement of new jobs, but the reality of men and women having the opportunity to go to work every morning and have fulfilling jobs which allow them to contribute to local economies and to their personal lives and futures. That is where we want to be but it cannot happen unless the fundamental problems are dealt with. The Government is doing its damnedest to ensure that those things happen.

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