David Norris (Independent)

I thank Senator Ross for kindly sharing time. I do not need to welcome the Minister of State as the Senator already did so.

The Labour Party should have been allowed to call a division on the motion as it would have won it. That no Government Senator was present when the motion was moved created a rather awkward situation in such a serious debate. I remember winning a vote against the Government in similar circumstances many years ago on the basis that the Government benches were empty. It was argued that the Minister of State should be allowed to speak. Why? If the motion is proposed, seconded and unopposed, it should go to a vote. That option is no longer available.

I do not see a reason the Government side should not agree with a motion which states: "That Seanad Éireann notes with concern the rise in joblessness ... in particular the rise in youth unemployment". Is the Government not concerned? Of course it is, as are all decent Senators on the Government side. The motion also calls on the Government "to implement a Jobs Strategy, including retraining and back to education support, to tackle this crisis". Given that Senators on all sides have made that point, why are we going through this ritual farce of engaging in Ding Dong Denny O'Reilly, tit-for-tat rubbish every Wednesday night? Can we not grow up, put ideas together and get the country going again?

Ireland is in a serious position. According to the latest figures, unemployment increased in January by 3.1% to 436,936 compared with 423,595 in December 2009. The unadjusted live register increased by 110,664 or 33.9% over the past year. Dublin was hardest hit by the increase, with the number of people on the live register in the capital increasing by 38.1% in the past year. On a county basis, Kerry had the highest percentage increase of 6.2%, while Leitrim experienced the smallest increase of only 1%. There are not many people in County Leitrim and presumably most of them are employed. Men and women have been badly affected by the increase in unemployment. Figures show that 291,648 men and 145,288 women are on the live register.

I uncovered a very interesting statistic which shows that the number of workers from outside Ireland who are signing on increased by 5% or 3,876 in January. The number of Irish nationals on the register increased by 9,465 in the same month. A sizeable proportion of those signing on are from abroad, although many workers from outside the country have returned home. Underlying the figures is the serious problem that not only are we confronted with immediate unemployment but a large number of unskilled workers, the most vulnerable group, will be permanently on the dole. Even when the economy recovers to positive growth, it is likely that the jobless rate will never return to a level of 4% unless serious action is taken. The general estimate is that we will be left with a permanent unemployment rate of between 7% and 8%, most of whom will be unskilled workers.

The House earlier debated education, an area which is being squeezed by reduced funding, caps on staffing and cuts in courses. The issue is not being addressed by the Government. In addition, emigration to Australia and Canada has increased significantly with the result that more people are leaving Ireland than are arriving. We have, therefore, the beginning of a haemorrhage.

Recently, the Governor of the Central Bank, Professor Patrick Honohan, addressed the launch of the Trinity alumni career network, a group which is trying to secure jobs for Trinity College Dublin graduates. The Governor spoke about the ways in which we could boost the economy, including recapitalising the banks and so forth. However, even Professor Honohan had to note that employment levels among young Irish people have deteriorated much more rapidly than in other countries. He provided facts and figures on youth unemployment which I do not propose to repeat.

The type of black hole economics which counts profits from multinationals generated abroad does not reflect the true economic position. I was interested to read what Dr. Craig Barrett, the former chairman of Intel, had to say about the Irish economy. Addressing the emergence of China, India, Asia and so forth, he stated that the idea of bringing in large multinational corporations was now unimaginative and Ireland had to rely on entrepreneurs, start-ups and new ideas to drive economic growth, especially in areas such as nanotechnology, micro-electronics, photonics, biotechnology and alternative energy. This is precisely the argument made by many Senators in this afternoon's debate.

Why are we having this divisive debate when we should have allowed the Labour Party to win a division on the motion before having a free and wide-ranging discussion? Everyone in the House agrees with the sentiments in the Labour Party motion.