Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Tom Fleming for his question and comments. He has put his finger on the central issue for Government and one of the twin pillars of the mandate it was given: to fix our public finances and put our country back to work. I agree with Deputy Fleming that when a person is out of work for more than a year, or for two years and longer, it becomes very difficult to get the individual to be motivated to want to go to work. There are a number of incentives in there. The emphasis of the Government as espoused on many occasions by the Minister, Deputy Richard Bruton, is to do everything possible from a Government perspective to ease entry into work, to make it attractive here for investment for the creation of jobs and so on. If one does not have stability, one cannot have confidence and if one does not have that, one will not have investment. If one does not have investment, one will not have jobs.

Since the Government published the Action Plan for Jobs, 80,000 new jobs have been created. Unemployment has fallen for almost 30 months in a row from over 15% to just over 10%. While that is a radical improvement of more than 30%, it is still not sufficient. We must continue to focus as a Government on this particular problem as the best exit from poverty is the route through a job. That is why Government has changed the social protection services and established Intreo offices in every major town where the unemployed on the live register are profiled as being suitable for particular employers who are looking to expand their businesses. More than 130,000 people came off the live register last year and the Minister has introduced local employment offices in each local authority so that small businesses and medium enterprises can access all of the advice, information and assistance that is available to them for ease of employment or credit.

I note that 250,000 people lost their jobs as a consequence of the economic catastrophe that befell our country and many of them emigrated. Of those, 100,000 were from other countries, particularly in eastern Europe, who had come here to work in the construction sector. However, many of our own left and many still leave. I listened to an interview the other day with the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and the emphasis seemed to be that if one brought back young emigrants there might be a problem. We would welcome them back. I am glad to see that there is a rise not only in interest in coming back but in people returning here with skills and new experience, which is where we want to be. In respect of the long-term unemployed, there are incentives being put in place by Government such as the housing assistance payment and child benefit for those who are out of work for a period and who go back into a job. The social protection assistance they receive will not be cut off immediately, including medical cards and so on.

The Deputy makes the point and it is central to Government that we continue to focus on creating more jobs. Our ambition this year is to have 40,000 new jobs created in the course of 2015 and to have almost 500,000 people taken out of the requirement to pay the universal social charge. The emphasis from Government is on the hard pressed 30,000 to 70,000 and, strictly, on the creation of jobs. As a Deputy from Kerry, I note to Deputy Fleming that the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation has the approval of Government to spread the benefits of a rising economy throughout provincial and rural Ireland so that every town in time benefits from the creation of jobs. Nothing is more important in the lives of people than to have the stability of a good, well-paid job. That is where the continued focus and priority of Government will be for this year.

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