Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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2. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of jobs that were lost in the wholesale and retail sector in the first quarter of this year; the causes of the job losses; and his plans to reverse these losses. [23953/14]

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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The question is in a similar vein. Over the past number of weeks, the Labour Party has said that 60,000 new jobs have been created and the Minister of State, Deputy Fergus O'Dowd, referred to 5,000 jobs every week being created. The reality is shockingly different. The job creation tentatively experienced last year has ground to a halt and a number of sectors are under fierce pressure. The question is how the Government seeks to reverse it.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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The question as tabled relates to the wholesale and retail sector. The latest quarterly national household survey published by the CSO on 26 May showed that the number of people employed in the wholesale and retail sector fell by 2,200 in the first quarter of this year. We acknowledge that fall.

It is a very diverse sector and it appears the experience is different in different parts. In April, overall, the volumes and value of retail sales were up by 6.8% and 4.4% on the same period last year. Growth was concentrated in the motor, furniture, clothing, hardware and electrical sectors. By contrast, declines were recorded in the volume of activity in groceries, books and newspapers, and pharmacies.

Structural changes, such as trading online, are occurring in the sector and are undoubtedly playing a role. On the other hand, an increase in the KBC-ESRI consumer sentiment index for April, which put Irish consumer sentiment at its strongest level since January 2007, is encouraging. However, the key challenge is to translate these improvements into jobs in the retail sector.

This year’s Action Plan for Jobs includes a number of measures to support the retail sector. These measures include the establishment of a retail consultation forum to provide a platform for a structured engagement between the retail sector and relevant Departments and Government agencies. Its purpose is to allow key issues of relevance to the sector to be discussed, with a view to identifying practical actions which could be taken by the Government, or by industry itself, to support the sector. The first meeting of the forum will take place on 9 June.

The Action Plan for Jobs also includes measures to address issues that impact on cost competitiveness in the sector, the introduction of a number of structural measures to support the retail sector, and the continuation of the online trading initiative and the integrated licensing application system for the retail sector.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome those initiatives and particularly the ability of the retail industry to feed into Government policy. Until now, the retail industry has been the forgotten sector of society. Some 250,000 people work in it and it has lost 50,000 jobs in the past few years. It is the weathervane of the economy and it is very sensitive to expectations. I spoke to retailers who say that when the Government talks about cuts, property taxes and budgets, there is a fall in retail sales. With the property tax, it was evident. Retailers also tell me that all the talk about the water tax has lowered people's expectations of the level of disposable income they will have in the future, which leads to them changing their behaviour and their spending. There is a resultant effect of lowering jobs in the retail industry. If a policy has the effect of losing jobs in a specific area, it is an anti-jobs policy. Is the water charge not an anti-jobs policy? How will the Government, after listening to the election and the problems people have with water charges and the difficulty within the retail industry, ameliorate the issue?

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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We must acknowledge that Irish shoppers spent €3.8 billion in online trading in 2012. Some 75% of the revenue goes outside the State. While I acknowledge the points made by the Deputy, we must tackle this through Deputy Tóibín's committee, which will do some work on town centre planning. If we are talking about retailers, which he mentioned, it is a question of how town centres are structured and how we encourage greater trading. I am sure the work of the Deputy's committee will feed into the retail consultation forum. It is important to state that the retail consultation forum comprises retail Retail Ireland, Retail Excellence Ireland, RGDATA, Chambers Ireland, the Small Firms Association and individual retail practitioners. Through that consultation process, we will address issues like town centre shopping, e-commerce, driving more business online from Irish retailers, and the cost to business of retail. There are specific issues in the grocery sector that require to be addressed. We must look at budget 2015 to see if there is any way of enhancing demand through the process. We must also look at the Action Plan for Jobs 2015, the home renovation incentive scheme and the impact of the 9% VAT rate.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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I would like to focus the attention of the Minister of State on the accuracy of the figures. I raised this point in the first part of the question. The CSO figures released at the end of last month suggest the increase in employment was not as great as had been stated in March. A number of times, we have seen contradictory figures. Professor John FitzGerald of the ESRI said that this was the first time in 60 years that reliable sectoral employment figures are not available and that unfortunately this was happening just as we are experiencing major problems in a range of other data. That leaves the problem of the system being incorrect or the figures being massaged. The shocking truth is that three years into this Government we have figures that are hard to analyse, volatile jobs figures and where there are trends in job creation, they are, at best, anaemic. I would like to hear the views of the Minister of State. I am sure it is hard for him and his Department to analyse the effectiveness of policy when the sectoral information is, in many cases, untrue.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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The question tabled by the Deputy concerned the wholesale and retail sectors and I am confident that, through a process of consultation involving all the stakeholders, thorough engagement and giving effect to many initiatives that arise from the retail consultation forum, we can work towards increasing the number of people employed in the retail sector. We wholeheartedly acknowledge that, year-on-year between 2013 and 2014, there has been a drop of 5,900 in the number of people employed in the sectors. We must do something to address that decline and the decline of our towns through the doughnut effect. The Deputy referred to the retailers he is meeting and the level of confidence. Through engaging with those retailers and their representative organisations, we can arrest the decline. I am confident that, once the process starts on 9 June, we will take action.