Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue and to confirm my support for the motion. I have no doubt that sustained and focused support for small and medium-sized industry is vital for job creation and to deal with the jobs crisis. However, this alone will not solve the unemployment crisis. Private enterprise alone will not solve the unemployment crisis. A total of 350,000 people are unemployed while a further 80,000 people are on various schemes. Simply doing what the Government says - creating the environment for job creation - is not good enough and will not deal with the huge level of unemployment that exists.

We need the State to take direct action in job creation and to create employment itself in infrastructural services such as roads. Rather that cutting the budget for roads by over €1.5 million this year in south Tipperary, we should be putting money into roads and job creation. This would create more jobs down the road and in the general retail industry. The situation is similar with housing. About 90,000 families are on the housing list. There needs to be a significant job creation programme through building houses for people on the local authority list. This would create jobs, provide taxes for the Exchequer and save on social welfare payments. Jobs created by the Government in this and other infrastructural areas are necessary.

See this speech in context