Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 13: To ask the Taoiseach the meetings he has attended at Cabinet sub committee and or at official level on job creation. [32727/11]

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 14: To ask the Taoiseach the meetings he has attended in relation to the issue of job creation. [34190/11]

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 13 and 14 together.

Job creation is a key priority for the Government and is a central focus of my work and that of my ministerial colleagues and the State agencies. In my role as Taoiseach, I attend meetings related to jobs and job creation on an ongoing basis as part of my engagements at home and abroad. I also chair the Cabinet committee on economic recovery and jobs which has met on three occasions to date and is due to meet again on Thursday. Job creation is also an important part of the mandate of other Cabinet committees, including the Cabinet committee on economic infrastructure, which has met five times to date.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I tabled this question because the unemployment situation is, without question, the most important issue facing the Irish people. The domestic economy is extremely flat and it is calling out for fresh initiatives and new ideas on how new opportunities can be created for people who are unemployed and for the many young people coming out of the colleges. The House has just discussed the temporary agency directive, which is critical for employment creation and for employment retention. I am concerned at the lack of urgency and also at the lack of public debate with regard to this issue. I note the Taoiseach has indicated he will give consideration to such a debate.

The jobs initiative has proved to be a damp squib in its impact. I ask the Taoiseach to indicate whether at the meetings he has attended he has considered a review of the initiative and in particular a review of the pension levy which was a raid on pensioners, supposedly to fund job creation. We have learned from parliamentary questions and replies to same that the funds raised from the pensioners has not been used for job creation at all and that a large bulk of it has remained, essentially, unspent on job creation projects.

There is a dearth of any fresh or radical approach to job creation. Despite the number of Cabinet sub-committee meetings and official meetings attended by the Taoiseach, there seems to be little in the way of real substantive initiatives for job creation.

The Taoiseach referred earlier to the capital programme which has been cut back by €750 million. This will result in thousands of jobs being lost which otherwise would have been created if he had looked differently at how he would meet the fiscal adjustment target of 8.6% of GDP. He has gone for what I would call the soft options politically. It is clear there are tensions within the Cabinet about the most basic of issues and that there is no agreement about a budgetary framework to meet the targets.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Could the Deputy ask a question, please?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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This suggests to me that the focus on job creation is being lost as a result-----

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputy Adams has a question.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----and hence there is an excessive focus on issues like capital spending which can make a fundamental difference to the productive capacity of the economy and create jobs.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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There is no question in anyone's mind that the most important legacy of any Government is its capacity to create jobs and work, to get people off the dole and into employment. Work is a source of dignity and respect for people. It provides a challenge and a motivation for them to get up in the morning to go to work and to contribute to their own local economy, their parish, their town, their county and their country.

One of the big issues raised when I meet business people all over the country has been the question of lack of access to credit and lack of availability of credit. For this reason we called in the banks last week to discuss this question and to hear from the two pillar banks whether they can meet their targets of lending €3 billion each this year. It transpires that elements of that €3 billion are restructured loans and new finance.

The Minister for Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation, is at the point of being able to bring forward his proposals in respect of a microfinance agency and legislation for partial loan guarantee schemes. The pension levy, to which the Deputy referred, is a temporary levy in respect of which the pensions industry could well absorb the cost involved. That money has been channelled into the reduction of PRSI for particularly lower paid workers and for VAT reductions in the hospitality sector. The latest report clearly indicates that the VAT reduction had a direct impact on the rising number of tourists, which in turn has a beneficial effect on local economies.

From that perspective, we will continue to look at imaginative ways of stimulating the indigenous economy. For example, the short-term visa waiver programme now applies to 14 nationalities who would ordinarily require a visa to enter the State and there has been great interest in this programme. Approximately 1,000 jobs will be created by capital injection towards the rehabilitation of local and national roads. An extensive retrofitting energy scheme has the capacity for significant employment. The Government will provide €30 million for school works in addition to €41 million already provided for the schools summer works scheme. This will support 2,400 direct jobs and almost 500 indirect jobs during the period of the works.

I want to see a real jobs strategy. The Minister of State, Deputy John Perry, and the Minister, Deputy Bruton will, along with the budget, focus on a jobs strategy to get the country working. We all want to see the creation of opportunities and to get people off the dole.

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I agree with everything the Taoiseach said in his opening remarks. There is no more important part of the legacy of a Government than to have created jobs. By his own admission, at the end of his Government's four year austerity programme, there will be almost as many people still unemployed as there are now. This is the biggest crisis facing the State. Can the idea of a substantive jobs stimulus not find favour with the Government? One of Sinn Féin's propositions in its pre-budget submission is to take money from the National Pensions Reserve Fund and from the European Central Bank and to use it for the creation of new jobs and the retention of existing jobs. I commend this proposition to the Taoiseach as one way of getting people back to work, growing the economy, bringing back confidence and giving people the dignity they require.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Of course it would be lovely to say we will provide a major financial stimulus for the lifting of the indigenous economy. The Deputy realises at long last that we are not in control of our economic destiny here because the paymaster general is in the corner-----

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I have known it all my life.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy has his own view about the whole European business.

Deputy Martin referred to capital works. If I were to say we plan to increase income tax by 5% or 6% to pay for these projects, this would increase both taxes and debt but this is not the way to go. There must be a balance between achieving the fiscal adjustment target of 8.6% of GDP on the one hand and re-focusing our attention on cutting out red tape and administrative blockages so that all the effort goes into releasing the opportunity for people to create work.

Across the country there are many examples of small businesses, entrepreneurs and young people who have new and creative ideas and businesses. Even if these businesses only employ a small number, confidence will be grow. The Government will provide microfinance credit opportunities and there will be a reduction in red tape and bureaucracy which applies. For instance, many LEADER groups have told me they have money in their funds but the associated red tape and bureaucracy makes it impossible to access it. The system will have to be simplified so that entrepreneurs or young people with ideas will be given the opportunity to give it a go.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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I apologise to Deputy Adams but we are over time.