Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and wish him well in the task of dealing with the appalling unemployment figures we face in this country. I also wish him well in reaching out to those who have become unemployed because there is nothing more harrowing or distressing for an individual or a family than to face into a period of unemployment and feel unsupported, not knowing where to turn or what one's next step will be. That is the way many people will feel at present, given the economic situation we are facing.

In the early 1990s I worked on the National Economic and Social Forum and the Minister of State will remember that it produced a report at that time on coping with long-term unemployment and the steps that the then Government needed to take to deal with it. It is sad to think that we have to take up that report and check if there are recommendations in it which we can now put to good use. I agree with Senator Quinn that we need to be imaginative and show initiative in dealing with the current situation if we are to reach out to help the people who need it most.

I am concerned about the provisions in the budget announced yesterday. The budget does not protect the vulnerable, those at the cutting edge and those who are least able to cope with the downturn in the economy. It will result in an increase in costs and charges for them. This is a demanding time in terms of dealing with the unemployment figures.

The level of unemployment here is now higher than that in the United States, Britain, Japan, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Poland, Singapore, South Korea. Therefore, it is not correct to say that the international situation has led to the rising level of unemployment here. There are national factors involved. Decisions were taken here that have led to a situation where jobs are being lost at an alarming rate.

I had hoped that the budget would have contained some particular initiatives to deal with unemployment. In his speech the Minister of State gave very few specifics. I ask him and his Department to come up with more. We need to hear of the initiatives that will be taken to retrain people and help them get back to education. Those are the areas on which we should be focusing in order to give people hope.

Fine Gael has made a number of recommendations on back to education incentives on which the Government could act. It would be worthwhile for the Minister to examine them. One of the recommendations is the extension of the back to education allowance. We must try to ensure that we do not return to an era of long-term unemployment and emigration. We will need a more proactive approach than we have seen to date.

In this context, I refer to the example of the debate on FÁS in recent weeks and the criticisms of that agency, yet one of the first points the Minister of State made in his speech concerned the role played by FÁS. This is an agency that has been heavily criticised recently, yet in almost the first point he made in his speech, the Minister of State outlined FÁS will offer a range of services, supports and programmes to help those in the workforce. I hope the agency can do that, but it is clear that there needs to be a great deal of supervision, monitoring and reporting back to the Minister about the initiatives it is taking.

What are the more intensive arrangements with the local employment services to deal with the increases expected in live register referrals? What are the short relevant training courses they will provide and where will they be available? I would like to hear much more about that. Senator Ormonde said it is important for people who suddenly become unemployed to know where to turn and what is available. We need to hear much more about this. We also need to hear much more about initiatives on the retraining and back to education side as well as about the support for the community employment schemes. That is essential.

The scale of what is happening is frightening. The number of unemployed people signing on the live register in my area in Clondalkin has increased by 47%. Facing unemployment is a dramatic change for families. People are seeking support from MABS on how to deal with their day-to-day bills. The sudden unemployment people are facing has a serious impact on their personal lives. I am receiving contact from constituents about having to queue in the rain outside the unemployment office in Lucan. The office does not have the capacity to cope with the numbers.

The issue of how we deal with the people who become unemployed is important. We have heard reports from many Senators about the conditions, the way people are being dealt with and the delays they encounter in getting their benefits. We heard more announcements last night about the number of stamps people will need before they will be eligible for allowances. This increases the stress on the families concerned. We also need to examine those aspects.

Increasing our competitiveness is a key factor. I spoke to individuals involved in small businesses this morning and they are devastated by the budget announcements. They do not believe there were any initiatives for small business, but that in fact the pressure on them has increased, and these are the people who have been creating most of the jobs in the country, as we know. They did not get much solace, yesterday, from the budget, and perhaps the Minister of State might comment on that.

There has been a great deal of talk about the amount of bureaucracy and red tape that so many employers in small business have to deal with on an ongoing basis. Something could be done about this. It would help to restore our competitiveness. Initiatives must be taken to restore competitiveness in the country. One can see that our competitiveness graph has been falling and this is a key factor behind the type of unemployment we are facing. We need to hear from the Minister of State about the type of initiatives that are being taken to restore competitiveness in the country. It is critical. We must do it if we are to increase exports. Growth rates in Irish exports have fallen below our peer countries in recent years, and our share of global trade has declined each year since 2002.

Our productivity growth has been below the OECD average since 2003. High inflation has affected our competitiveness as well as poor infrastructure across the board and not enough investment in research and development — although I take on board what Senator Hanafin said yesterday about that. That is what is going to make a difference if we are to reduce the unemployment figures and stop the type of job losses we have seen in recent weeks and months.

Senator Quinn spoke about the number of small businesses going to the wall and expressed his surprise at the statistics. If we are not competitive and continue to make the demands on small businesses that we have been making, we will see more of them folding. That is the sector which needs the support and initiatives to make it realistic for small businesses to continue to keep the people they have, employ more and grow and develop.

Again, we did not see that, yesterday. We are in 22nd place in the global competitiveness report, which was published. I want to deal with the reasons behind that. It is largely due to our inadequate infrastructure, high inflation and inefficient Government bureaucracy. We did not see any reform announced in the budget yesterday, and that is a big disappointment. There was no reform of the bureaucracies that have been built up. We are not going to get efficient frontline services if we do not reform the bureaucracies and they will eat away at our money. All the extra tax put on people yesterday in the budget will be used up on these bureaucracies and the money will not be available for the creative initiatives that might make a difference in terms of creating more employment.