Ivor Callely (Fianna Fail)

I welcome my friend and colleague, the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Coughlan, and congratulate her on the overview she has given us in terms of her endeavours in regard to what lies ahead for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment under her stewardship. I wish her well in achieving same.

While I usually have the highest regard for the contributions made by Senator Cannon his contribution today is a little disappointing and politicised. It clearly did not acknowledge some of the good work done by Government. There is no doubt that 2009 was a difficult year for the political system and structures and, in particular, the Government which faced international difficulties compounded by global difficulties and other issues in terms of our role in Europe, national financial difficulties and the need to ensure we continued to have a functioning banking system. The initial part of Senator Cannon's contribution does not reflect in true fashion what was actually achieved by Government. The Government entered 2009 with a great deal of baggage in terms of the difficulties we faced and was required to address important and crucial issues in the interests of this country. It did so by addressing the second referendum on the Lisbon treaty and our financial situation by putting through one of the most difficult budgets in this history of this State, all of which should be acknowledged and not politicised.

I take this opportunity to congratulate the Tánaiste and her colleagues, in particular the Minister for Finance, on taking what were tough, correct and brave decisions. I would like to have heard Senator Cannon's contribution were he still a member of the party through which he was elected to this House. I believe such a contribution would have been totally different from that which he made, which was clearly politicised. Given his calibre and intellect and in terms of what he is able to offer the House, I believe his contribution today was disappointing. I believe Senator Cannon's contribution would have differed greatly from that which he made were he still a Member from this side of the House.

We are all aware that we have suffered a combination of international and external negative economic factors which have had a critical impact on the Irish economy during the past 18 to 24 months. There is no point crying about from where we have come or whether a particular decision made by a particular person, regardless of the position he or she held or holds, brought us to where we are. The public wants us to move on from that phase. They want to hear positive contributions. It is important that we acknowledge and learn from past mistakes and that we stomach the medicine in this regard. We must learn from our mistakes, move on and remain positive. We must be empowered with confidence to move forward.

The good news is that the business cycle is changing. The fundamental attraction of Ireland as a place to do business is returning. The international economy has exited recession and recent indicators suggest that economic activity in this country is, as the Minister also indicated this morning, turning the corner. The number of people losing their jobs has stabilised and the appalling crisis in terms of job losses which commenced early in 2009 has almost come to an end. I support the undercurrent of the Minister's contribution, namely, we need to ensure that we maintain our attractiveness as a location of multinational investment, indigenous industry and enterprise and jobs and export-led growth. It is only through doing so that we can earn our way as a country with profitable enterprise, growing employment and the means for the State to provide jobs and services for those in need.

In the limited time available I want to refer to an issue also mentioned by the Minister in her contribution, namely, small and medium sized enterprises, SMEs. Small businesses are being starved of credit and working capital. That is the feedback. In fairness, Senator Cannon also referred to what he had picked up on the ground during the Christmas recess. We all are picking up the same message. I have had the opportunity to meet representatives of some of the main banks through my membership of the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment and they are giving us a slightly different story from what we are picking up on the ground. They are also being open and honest and stating that if we bring individual cases to their attention, they will have them looked at. However, there is much more to be done than bringing individual cases to their attention.

There is the nonsense of whether an inquiry or an application was made. It something is recorded, it is deemed to be an application for credit or a loan; it is not, it is considered to be an inquiry. We need to move from this space to the new enterprise-driven sector with a low pain threshold. We do not want people to run around. That is not the way we should do business. We should help one another and be positive.

I made contact with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to indicate that I was meeting a number of people to discuss enterprise. However, there was not a positive reaction - that there would be a person available to feed into the discussions of this group. This is frustrating. We need to take a step back to look at how we react. We should look at them with a fresh pair of eyes and be prepared to be brave and make correct decisions.

The banks have overreacted because they were exposed. If the House will excuse my use of the phrase, they are covering their asses. That is probably unparliamentary language but that is what the banks are doing. In some cases it is a reaction to the capital constraints but in others there appears to be an unwillingness to extend credit where there is the slightest business or trade risk. Even though businesses may be trading properly, their credit facilities are not being renewed or expanded as was the case. As a result, companies are at risk of failure because they cannot access credit. This is unacceptable, particularly as the taxpayer has already contributed to the recapitalisation of the banks. I welcome the credit appeals mechanism announced for SMEs, farm enterprises and sole traders. I ask, however, that we ensure the mechanism works, that we bring some body of people together to ensure it does and that we provide for some asset testing.

The other aspect we should welcome is the cost reductions, to which the Tánaiste again referred. The reductions in energy prices which she mentioned, among others, are welcome. However, we must continue to reduce the cost base faced by small and large businesses and consumers. In particular, we need to ensure there are incentives to reduce costs and increase productivity and service delivery in all areas and sectors, both private or public. This means, for example, that State-sponsored bodies cannot be immune from the pay adjustments being made elsewhere in the economy. There is an enormous number of such bodies. A clear message must be sent to them that their rates of pay, from the top down, must not be excessive, that their overheads must match their requirements and that their manning levels and procedures must be compatible with the efficient and effective delivery of services. The message must be that all wages and salaries paid from the public purse need to be reduced in line with the reductions in pay and other payments already suffered by public servants and private sector workers. This is the only way we can ensure strong competition in any area we need to revisit and review.

There is one other matter I want to mention in support of the Tánaiste, that is, the need to ensure we continue to sell the message internationally that Ireland is open for business and that we have taken the corrective action necessary. In that regard, I want to see additional funding being provided for all of the development agencies.

Unemployment is one issue on which I wanted to touch. We are given different figures. The one that is quoted regularly is that of the 420,000 on the live register. I often look at the quarterly national household survey. Its latest seasonally adjusted figure, for the period July to September 2009, indicates that there were 279,000 unemployed. The Tánaiste also mentioned the figure of 1.9 million employed in the third quarter of 2009. In the light of what has happened, these figures are not bad. However, there is one aspect that concerns me. Irrespective of whether the figure one picks is 279,000 or 420,000, which figure includes seasonal and other workers, there is one sector, the community and voluntary sector which I have mentioned previously, in which we should be able to give people hope.