Dan Boyle (Green Party)

It is a lot of it, and there is no surprise there either. Regarding employment, we must discuss the state of the global economy. In the United States, the national debt clock that measured their debt in trillions of dollars has become obsolete because the debt has moved into the quadrillion category and the clock does not measure the size of the debt any more. The United States has been recognised as the engine of the world economy, and this country has tied much of its economic interests and policies towards that established fact in the recent past.

As we look towards the type of economy that might exist in the 21st century and how it might affect our country, the first thing we may have to realise is that we may be coming towards the end of the American century. We must identify the engine in the new world economy. That probably will be in the BRIC countries, Brazil, Russia, India and China. Efforts have been made by State agencies, in particular the IDA, to establish relations with China, the fastest growing economy in the world, and we need to ask which industries will provide sustainable jobs into the future. A fair comment on the budget analysis is that we relied too heavily on the construction sector and we could never expect to build 90,000 housing units year on year.

We also need to ask how much unnecessary manufacturing capacity has been let go. Traditional manufacturing industries such as textiles and footwear are gone forever. Earlier I attended a presentation by Boston Scientific, a significant employer in the State and in my constituency, in particular. The company manufactures high-tech equipment and we need to aspire to attracting more companies like this. High-tech manufacturing is based on significant research and I am glad decisions were made yesterday to enhance research and development budgets because that is where our economic prosperity and future employment potential lies.

At the same time as replacing traditional manufacturing with high-tech manufacturing and research and development, other economies have relied on the services sector and this should be examined critically by the Government. The financial services sector relies on information technology, which provides employment potential, but it has existed on shifting sands and it is not in our interest to put too many eggs in that basket for future economic or employment growth.

I look forward to Government announcements in the coming weeks regarding green technology and employment potential in the energy, waste management and research and development sectors, which will help us move into a post-fossil fuel economy. Research and development resources are needed to develop such technology. For instance, we are catching up in the area of wind energy and while we may reach a stage where we produce the required amount of electricity through wind power, we will do so through Danish and German windmills. Had we invested in such energy earlier, we would have developed the technology and generated the necessary capacity. Ireland still has an opportunity to do this in the area of wave energy. We are ahead of the rest of the world in development in this area. I am hopeful green technology will be shown to be most vigorous in the future.

The move from the 9 a.m. to 5 p.m work model has benefitted the economy in the recent past but we need to be more flexible by assisting people to work at home and to opt in and out of the work they do and get away from seeing work in its traditional setting. If that can be done, environmental and social improvements will result in a reduced necessity for child care and the avoidance of unnecessary travel. A more productive workforce would result from the introduction of more flexible work practices. Ireland's unemployment level should be looked on from a glass three quarters full perspective. The total workforce still numbers two million and it is anticipated unemployment will increase to more than 7%. The necessary corrections to the economy, which we will discuss later, will help to increase employment and I look forward to the Government acting on much of that potential.