Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 58: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation his plans for additional job creation measures having regard to the increase of more than 12,000 in the live register figures for December 2010, the highest end-of-year figure ever recorded; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2913/11]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The role of my Department is to ensure that we have the right policies in place that will support and grow our enterprise base to facilitate job creation and job retention. The National Recovery Plan, published by the Government on 24 November 2010, provides a blueprint for Ireland's return to sustainable economic growth. It identifies the areas of activity, which will provide increased employment opportunities as Ireland's economic recovery takes place.

The plan sets out a range of specific actions and supports designed to improve competitiveness across all sectors of the economy. These include measures to cut costs to business, the removal of barriers to employment creation, and a range of sector-specific actions to increase exports and domestic demand.

In September, the Taoiseach launched the five-year integrated Government plan for trade, tourism and investment aimed at generating 300,000 jobs by the end of 2015. The new plan, entitled "Trading and Investing in a Smart Economy", is the first integrated strategy to promote overseas trade, tourism and investment. With this new strategy, the Government aims to position Ireland for strong export-led growth to 2015, resulting in high levels of job creation.

The plan aims to create more than 150,000 direct new jobs - IDA Ireland 75,000, Enterprise Ireland 60,000 and tourism 15,000 - in manufacturing, tourism and internationally traded services, with another 150,000 spin-off jobs. The programmes supported by my Department and its agencies will be critical in achieving a return to economic growth through promoting the export potential of enterprise in Ireland and advancing the smart economy agenda.

The allocation in budget 2011 of €508 million in capital funding will ensure that the enterprise agencies' core programmes are sustained and targeted. This will include actions to position Ireland as a global innovation hub.

The State development agencies - Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and the county and city enterprise boards - are continuing to drive and promote enterprise development and, consequently, employment creation in our economy. IDA Ireland continues to market and promote Ireland for inward investment. On 15 January, Intel, an IDA client company that already employs more than 4,000 people in Ireland, announced that it is to begin a substantial new €375-million construction project at its Leixlip technology campus.

Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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At the outset, I acknowledge the success of Intel and long may it continue. It is great news. We have opportunities to advance developments such as science technology parks, which are important in the context of future economic policy.

Notwithstanding the grim employment news in the live register to end-December, the unemployment rate would be even higher were it not for the resumption of mass emigration. When people are forced to emigrate it provides a safety valve for the Government. Ireland's young, educated workforce have ambitions but at least 100,000 people have left our shores in the past 15 months. Many of them are under 25 years of age. Deputy Bruton said that some 40,000 people in that age category have emigrated. That is an indictment of State policies as well as an appropriate political epitaph for the Government. Mass emigration was something we thought we had left behind in the 1940s and 1950s and would never resume, but one in three young people under 25 are on the dole.

Will the Government continue with the same policies as a result of which we have already suffered the deflationary impact of budgets? If the Government continues along that path, will it be possible to make an impression on the unemployment figures? I acknowledge the Minister's successes, including Intel. I am not here to be a knocker because we all feel the economic impact, but is there anything meaningful the Government can do?

Although we have no more divine wisdom than anyone else, we have suggested a number of ideas, including the apprentice work placement programme, the skills exchange policy and a tax-based scheme to fund full-time study. Does the Government have any focus on the clean-tech, tourism and agri-food sectors which have the potential to create jobs here? Foreign direct investment is important but what policies does the Government have in place for indigenous industries which can play such a meaningful role?

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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We should address three issues concerning job creation. The first one is to provide sufficient capital to agencies so they have money to expend and ensure that targets are met. IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and the enterprise boards have sufficient cash and are satisfied that they can meet their targets given the capital provided.

Second, the trade strategy itself outlines into 2015 the creation of 300,000 jobs. All the agencies involved in that strategy, including tourism and food, are all working together on an integrated package. We are happy that they will achieve those targets. For instance, the IDA and Enterprise Ireland alone have clearly indicated that they can create 30,000 jobs, which is a significant increase. We can see that this strategy is working because foreign direct investment has confidence in Ireland. Some 850 additional jobs are to be created at Intel in Leixlip, which gives a signal to the rest of the world that Ireland is the place to locate. Ireland has the best labour skills and outstanding operational efficiencies, in addition to being much more competitive than it was previously.

Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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Science and technology are important, particularly with the focus on commercialisation and job creation, but what are the Minister's plans in that regard? While Ireland remains an important development hub for European markets, we may be somewhat threadbare in terms of staff numbers devoted to securing a significant market share in expanding economies, such as those of the BRIC countries. The Minister should re-examine the recruitment moratorium to ensure that additional personnel will be made available to the IDA and Enterprise Ireland to secure such opportunities.

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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I am glad the Deputy raised that issue because our strategy targets emerging economies in India, Brazil, China and the Middle East. I have visited three such countries on trade missions. I was due to visit Brazil but could not do so at the time. We are targeting those markets, however. To this end, I am calling in all the ambassadors of emerging economies to make them aware of our purpose in marketing in their countries. The Chinese ambassador will come in to meet me this afternoon. In addition, I will meet the ambassador from the United Arab Emirates next week. I will meet all such ambassadors in due course and will take them to Farmleigh for a meeting with the relevant State agencies.

Deirdre Clune (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I hope the Minister will have enough time.

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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In that way, we will make them fully aware of the export opportunities that Ireland can provide for their respective countries.