Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to resume my contribution to the debate on this important legislation. I also welcome the Bill and many of the proposals in it. It is important that industrial development in this country is taken seriously. The past five or six years have been difficult for us and we need to up our game. For this reason, I welcome this legislation.

I referred earlier to the crisis in youth unemployment in this State and across the European Union, in respect of which the Government needs to wake up and face the reality. I will deal further with this issue later in my contribution. Small and medium-sized businesses need our help and can no longer be ignored. I have been concerned, particularly in recent days, about the level of complacency around this issue. These issues must be addressed head on. We must support the people on the ground and address the issues affecting them.

The Bill provides for the dissolution of Forfás, which since its establishment in 1994 has been Ireland's policy advisory board for enterprise, trade, science, technology and innovation. It also provides for the transfer of certain functions of Forfás to the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and the Health and Safety Authority.

It is important when dealing with issues such as innovation and job creation for young people that targets and objectives are set. We have many talented people in this State, many of whom have brilliant ideas. These people need to be nurtured and developed rather than allowed to emigrate to places like Australia, America, Canada and so on. The emphasis of Government over the next couple of months must be on addressing the youth unemployment issue. The youth unemployment rate in Ireland began to rise sharply in 2007. Between 2007 and 2009, it rose from 9.1% to 24% and increased steadily to 30.4% in 2012. The youth unemployment rate in the EU 28 also rose during this period but at a slower rate and from a higher base. It rose from 15.8% to 20.2% between 2007 and 2009 and to 23% in 2012. The rate of youth unemployment in Ireland remained high during 2013 at between 27.6% and 28.5%, with the latest figure for September 2013 being 28%. The Irish rate represents approximately 60,000 young people. The EU rate for September 2013 was 23.5%, which represents approximately 5.6 million young people. This means there are 60,000 young people in this State and 5.6 million young people across the European Union who need support. These are the generation of people we need to get into the job market in order that they can make their contributions and pay their taxes, thereby providing us with the revenue to develop services. I ask that the Minister of State take on board my proposals in relation to this legislation.

Long-term unemployment is another concern. However, it is less prevalent among young people than it is among the general population.

That is something we must focus on as well. In the fourth quarter of 2012, of those young people who were unemployed, over two fifths had been unemployed for one year or longer. By the second quarter of 2013 the figure had fallen to just over one in three. By comparison, among those aged 25 or over, in the second quarter of 2013 almost two in three were classified as long-term unemployed.

Recent Irish research has indicated that the risk factors for young unemployed people becoming long-term unemployed include previous experience of being unemployed for over 12 months; literacy and numeracy problems; no formal education; and living in a suburban area. We should consider the causes within the 60,000 figure as well. The issues of numeracy and literacy keep popping up. If we lose a young generation these young people will cost us a good deal of money in the end and we will destroy many young lives and stop people from contributing to society and the country. The important or key thing is early education. If young children are coming through with literacy and numeracy problems we must intervene at junior infants. There is no use in doing it in sixth class when they are 12 or 13 years of age. Much of the damage is done by then and many of those children end up in trouble. It is important to consider these issues as well.

When we are examining the youth unemployment figures it is important to recognise that there are young people at risk. These are the people we should target for jobs. For example, let us consider the criminal justice sector. Many people do not know it, but it is estimated that over 5,000 young people will come in contact with Garda youth diversion projects in 2014, a high figure. These are projects to try to help young people from getting involved in crime. Let us consider the figures. I note the Minister for Justice and Equality seems to have been clapping himself on the back in recent days over crime figures and so on. However, the reality is that if there are 5,000 young people coming in contact with Garda youth services, then there is an issue that must be identified.

By the end of December 2013 Operation Fiacla had led to the arrest of 7,610 persons while 4,342 persons have been charged as a consequence. There is an issue with crime and dysfunctional sections of Irish society and we need to deal with that. If the Government does not deal with these issues, then there is no point in coming to the House with legislation or talking about economic and industrial development and changing the system. Naturally, this legislation is positive and the Minister's decision to integrate Forfás into the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation has resulted in the reduction of board membership since 2012.

Let us consider the role the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. It is responsible for enterprise policy in Ireland. Some excellent ideas have come forward and I welcome that. There are some excellent staff members in the Department who have made a major contribution. However, it is important to consider the mission of the Department now and again. The mission of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation is to support the creation of good jobs by promoting the development of a competitive business environment in which enterprises will operate to high standards and grow in sustainable markets. That is an objective and mission every Member should support. However, we must also ensure that when we are referring to good jobs we do not include young people who are being exploited in low-paid jobs. Some are not getting any money and we have seen examples of this in recent days.

Furthermore, we must deal with the problems of enterprises and give them a chance to become competitive. A man was in my constituency office yesterday morning who runs a small business whose commercial rates went up by 177%. This is a small business on the northside of Dublin. This man is pulling his hair out over the costs because he wants to employ more people. Some of these businesses may only employ between three and five people, but that is a major contribution to a local community. If we give three or five people a job then we make a major contribution to the economy. It is well and good to look at the big stars coming in and big announcements, like the announcement in Cork recently. I wish them well and I put it to the Minister of State that this is a positive development. However, we must not forget the small people and businesses that need our support and that are being squeezed. They have created thousands of jobs.

Let us dig further into the legislation. Section 3 provides that any expenses incurred in the administration of the Act shall be paid out of moneys paid by the Oireachtas. However, the good news is there are no costs to the Exchequer arising out of these proposals, something I welcome. This is important because we have been talking about efficiencies and saving money and we should be sensible about these things.

Sections 18 and 19 transfer the functions of Forfás to Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and the Minister. The sections will come into operation on the dissolution day. I note one point about Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, in fairness to them. I join my colleagues in paying tribute to them for the significant work they have done. They have made a major and positive contribution to the economic development of the country. The people in Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and the civil servants in the Department that they have made a fairly major contribution to the economic development of the country and we should not be afraid to say as much.

Several functions conferred on Forfás will be assigned to Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland. The Bill will transfer these functions to Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland and that is a positive development.

Since I am discussing the economy and the matter of developing enterprise and innovation, I encourage the Minister to give a little extra focus to the small and medium-sized enterprise sector and the issue of youth unemployment. Only three countries, Germany, Netherlands and Austria, had a youth unemployment rate below 10% in 2012. Ireland was one of seven countries, including Spain and Greece, which had a youth unemployment rate over 30% in 2012. The figures speak for themselves. We need to wake up, smell the coffee and respond to youth unemployment.

I accept the fact that there is a good deal of talk on youth unemployment but we need to get away from the talk and come up with some ideas. The European Union has been discussing youth unemployment since the late 1990s. It has come up with some employment strategies. However, we need to look effectively at these and determine whether they are working. We should examine how to use the European Social Fund and Structural Funds to target specific youth employment measures. We should focus on the fast-tracking of the youth employment initiative, which has a new focus and a budget of €6 billion for 2014 and 2015. We must ensure that money is used between 2014 and 2015. There has been a re-launch of the joint youth employment action teams in member states experiencing high rates of youth unemployment. However, the bottom line is that as well as training and education we have to be about creating jobs.

I accept that many of the policies of the Government have focused on addressing the needs and capacities of employers to create stable employment opportunities for young people and to deal with the issue of taking on young employees. We should examine this and determine whether we can deal strongly and sensibly in this area. The State will supplement wages of young people and reduce employer costs associated with employing young people, a matter I referred to earlier in my contribution. It dedicates particular funds for programmes which support youth unemployment, for example, programmes which match local training programmes and local employer demands, which make employment protection legislation more flexible, and which, in some cases, emphasise self-employment and entrepreneurship among young people. These are things we need to examine closely.

Let us dig further into the legislation on the transfer of Forfás. We need to be conscious of the staff issue because that is important. Section 24 provides for the remaining staff of Forfás to be appointed to unestablished positions in the Civil Service. The terms and condition of service relating to remuneration and superannuation can be no less favourable than those applying before the transfer. Section 24 is important. Section 25 provides that the superannuation schemes administered by Forfás prior to dissolution will continue in force as if made by the Minister. Section 14 provides that Forfás staff transferring to the National Standards Authority of Ireland must be on terms of superannuation no less favourable than those applying before the transfer. Many of the staff have done excellent work in recent years especially at this difficult time in our economic history.

Forfás has approximately 90 employees. The staff of the organisation will be affected in that they will become staff of the Department and other bodies.

Staff transferring to the Department will do so either as civil servants or fixed-term employees, as appropriate.

It is important in considering this Bill to focus on the key issues I have outlined. We have a major problem in this country in terms of youth unemployment, as well as a broader problem of long-term unemployment and emigration. We need radical and fresh ideas to tackle these problems. Reform of public services is essential, but it must be done in a positive and constructive way. We should not be afraid of returning to the ethos of public service in the true sense of serving the public. This legislation is relevant to that agenda.

I take the opportunity to pay tribute to the people who work hard to bring jobs into this country and develop the small business sector. We need factories and the jobs they supply, but we also need development. We have many people with new ideas in this country, including in Howth, Coolock, Darndale, Marino, Killester, Clontarf, Beaumont and right across the north side of Dublin, as Deputy Broughan well knows. They are a very talented group of people.

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