Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have an opportunity to speak on this Bill. It is appropriately constructed and timed. It will help augment the Government's job creation strategy in general. It will bring a new impetus to job creation at local level.

When locating jobs in the micro-sector it is important to have local knowledge, information, input, expertise and employees. We are fortunate to have a highly educated population, both young and old. Unfortunately, over the past number of years we have had more people than there were jobs available, but this issue is being addressed. I would not have believed four years ago that we would now have reached a situation in which more than 1,000 jobs a week are being created. This is a great tribute to the efforts of everybody concerned - the Government, the Minister and his colleagues. It is also a tribute to those in the public sector charged with this responsibility, such as Enterprise Ireland, the IDA and the county enterprise boards, which have undertaken this work in the past. All credit is due to them for their efforts. They did not have an easy task. The work was all uphill and difficult. We were told on a daily basis that there was no hope, that the country could not survive and there was no hope for our youth. Despite this, there has been significant success.

Like most Members, I spent a long time as a member of a local authority and I have always claimed that the separation of local authorities from the Oireachtas through the abolition of the dual mandate was a negative step. The dual mandate was significant in ensuring the direct link between the Oireachtas and the local authorities was maintained on an everyday basis. This gave greater power and influence to the local authorities and gave the Oireachtas a better and more direct impression of what was needed at local level. However, that debate is for another day.

Everything changes with the passage of time. The county enterprise boards worked extremely well up to now. However, circumstances have changed. It is critical now that the new local enterprise offices will be able to strike out afresh, using the information that was available to county enterprise boards and the information and support that was available to central agencies such as Enterprise Ireland and the IDA to the advantage of the local people. They must try to ensure that there is a link-up with the educational system, through the schools, to ensure the skills being developed are suited to what jobs and opportunities are likely to become available in their area.

An important issue in regard to providing jobs of any description in any part of the country at any time is the availability of the infrastructure. We must have adequate roads, telecommunications, water supply and power. Despite the fact that rain seems to fall constantly, we are only now, through Irish Water, coming to grips with the issues of water storage, treatment and supply. Energy supply is also an important issue. All of these areas of infrastructure need to come together in the creation of a package that is vital to a new entrepreneur or a business person who wishes to expand. We must be aware of the role that can be played at local level in this regard.

We should remember that it is now possible to set up multinational corporations from very small beginnings. Let us not forget that many major enterprises worldwide grew from small and humble beginnings, for example, Glen Dimplex and the enterprises of Bill Gates and various others. Intel was founded in a garden shed and started off very small. We need to nurture this culture. In the past, we tended to allow opportunities to pass us by without giving sufficient notice or attention to the potential of enterprises or what could be achieved by adding to those we already had and creating jobs.

It is possible to provide many jobs from small beginnings, even in remote parts of the country, through the use of modern technology, communications, road networks and facilities. Therefore, we must ensure that when developing industry and businesses we spread the opportunities across the country rather than concentrating on one area. This will have a beneficial impact on the wider economy. In the past there has always been an imbalance in this regard, and larger towns and cities have tended to draw industrial development to them. However, modern developments facilitate smaller industries, even in remoter parts of the country, and we must highlight this.

If a young entrepreneur or anybody with a business idea requires a patent, I would advise them to apply for a patent before they seek support in the marketplace, because too often other people will pick up and develop their idea to their advantage. I have been witness to one or two such cases in which an obvious unpatented business idea was developed by someone other than the originator. I hope the concept we are now unfolding will guard against this occurring.

It is no harm to use the new local enterprise offices to strike out anew and develop a new concept. They should be aggressive in their pursuit of people who have the ability to create jobs and enterprises, local or international. Access to local information is hugely beneficial. A number of people have raised concerns as to whether the new LEOs are the right places for this. I believe we do not do our local authority personnel justice in this regard. Many of them have skills and expertise and are well capable of assessing business opportunities, evaluating the concepts laid before them and making a judgment call that will benefit the local area. There is nothing so frustrating for someone as to be told "I will have to send that to headquarters," so that somebody else's opinion will determine whether the enterprise gets off the ground. That is not the way it should be. We should always be prepared to trust the people with the skills, ability, wherewithal and business acumen to be able to assess what is laid before them in a businesslike fashion. The county enterprise boards have proved they can do that and I have no reason to believe we do not have adequately skilled people in the local authorities to do the same in the future.

If we have a structure already, we should utilise it. The local authorities are already in place.

We have spoken about reform, and reform is taking place. Notwithstanding this, we should never forget if we do not give an opportunity to people at local authority level to exercise their flair it will never happen. Their commitment to the public good will be restricted because if they are always overshadowed they will not blossom, flourish or give their all, which is what is required at present.

Interaction with local business people and budding business people will continue to be important but we must also recognise our culture. The culture here has always been to anticipate failure. If one comes to the House any morning, afternoon or evening again and again one will hear the anticipation of failure, negativity and the inability to see anything positive. This is a change because the House was not like this. I have sat in various perches in the House over time and there has been a massive development of negativity. If we could harness the negativity in the House, bottle it and export it we would have an abundance that would keep the country going for a long time. The quicker we realise the degree to which we have at our disposal adequate resources, brainpower, ideas and management skills required to do the job in today's challenging world the better for ourselves, for the country, for the people and for the economy in general.

I mentioned the need for local skills and infrastructure. The LEOs will help focus attention on the requirements for local infrastructure in a way which has not been done before. This opportunity is being given to the LEOs at a crucial time for economic recovery and they will have critical influence in the major economic job to be done. In the past the economic development of the country has been cyclical. Over the years we have taken two steps forward and four steps backwards and we have never achieved a proper cohesive integrated and interdependent economic programme in a way which provides jobs for the population in the long term. In recent years every effort has been made to try to recover from a downturn when we should have been spearheading and showing the rest of the world the extent to which we can do the job thrust upon us even in difficult circumstances. This is being done now. We should avail of it, capitalise on it and use it as a means of promoting our image on the home market and abroad in such a way as to ensure we do not continue to bid goodbye to our young skilled workforce and have to visit them in other countries, and no longer ferment and create the impression with every new generation that somehow we are not as good as we should be. The degree to which very often our emigrants are successful abroad is due to the fact they are applauded when they strive to improve their lot, but this does not always happen at home.

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