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

I thank the Minister of State. As he said, co-operatives can sustain employment in situations where, as I said, jobs would otherwise be lost. They are jobs that would be lost not because the business is untenable but because they were not generating enough profits as expected by stakeholders. Co-operatives are often a way of giving control to local communities, stimulating the local economy and building regional and local wealth, but these co-operatives need support and training. It is my view that we should look to prioritise the supports and assistance available to co-ops in the context of economic growth and development to sustain communities. Local employment offices must be supported in training, upskilling and resourcing to facilitate the establishment and growth of co-operatives within each local employment office. Each office should have a minimum of one person available in-house to provide support to the co-operative sector, especially when establishing co-ops. We are reaching a situation now where we all agree that employment is good at the moment. We are down to 4% unemployment and we need to look at any way to tackle that 4% unemployment. Co-operatives would be one very good way to do that.

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