Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Taoiseach's statement this morning that the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation will work to ensure certainty on the terms of future trade between Ireland and Britain as soon as possible.

There can be little doubt that the work of IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland in the months and years ahead will take on even more crucial significance. Already Enterprise Ireland has identified diversification into other international markets, enhanced UK market supports, management and competitiveness supports and the management of potential currency exchange impacts as key priorities. It has also noted the UK's decision to leave the EU will present significant new challenges for Irish companies exporting to the UK and has announced immediate plans to support these companies to help them maintain their UK presence.

It is in this context I find astonishing reports in the press over the weekend and today that the Government has been engaging in a cost-cutting exercise at Enterprise Ireland. Apparently, the Minister, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor, has been told by officials in the Department that cost-cutting at Enterprise Ireland could jeopardise the organisation's ability to hit future job targets. Reports suggest the workforce at the agency is being cut from 797 people at the end of 2011 to a target of 597 at the end of this year. If a reduction in the number of staff was not enough, apparently after Exchequer budget cuts Enterprise Ireland will be required to fund the greater part of its expenditure through making returns on investments rather than relying on departmental funding.

Enterprise Ireland has stated its principal challenge is to maintain and improve the level of performance of recent years against the backdrop of resource constraints and an uncertain global economic climate. It also states managing a downsized organisation generating income from investments and rolling out a new engagement model to clients will pose challenges. We can add Brexit to this list of existing challenges. Companies supported by Enterprise Ireland employed more than 192,000 people last year, and this year it aims to target 12,000 new jobs at client companies and €22 billion in exports.

Cuts to staff in its budget make absolutely no sense.

There can be little doubt that Brexit has created huge uncertainty across the whole of the EU and in Ireland in particular. It has come as a shock to many of us but in spite of the challenges we are now faced with, it will also bring gaps in Government policy into sharper focus. Going forward, the emphasis must be on initiatives and policies from the Government and the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation which are pro-active, which support and foster the best interests of Irish businesses both at home and abroad and which protect the jobs and welfare of workers in Ireland. The latter point is crucially important, as it is now generally accepted that huge swathes of those who voted to leave the EU did so out of a sense of anger, disillusionment and marginalisation. Many felt disempowered by a system that no longer valued workers' rights, decent pay and decent work conditions. This is the very same system that seeks to privatise key public services such as housing, health and public transport in Ireland and across the EU. The Government would be well-advised to take heed of what has transpired in the UK.

Middle and low-income workers in Ireland will not tolerate further cuts to wages and services under the guise of Brexit paranoia. Neither, however, will people outside the greater Dublin region accept a Government response to Brexit that results in a greater concentration in Dublin, while in the rest of the country under-development continues to take place. The onus is now on the Government and on the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to step up to the plate. Workers' pay and conditions must be protected and a conscious and deliverable policy of rebalanced regional development rigorously pursued. We must also protect Irish businesses and ensure that Enterprise Ireland is adequately staffed and resourced to do its job.

I lived in the UK for nine years and I have been in contact with many friends and family who still live over there. They have a deep concern about it and it should be a priority for the Government to ensure that their rights are vindicated.

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