Larry Butler (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Billy Kelleher, to the House who carefully outlined the Government's positive proposals for job creation. It is important to bear in mind the Government itself cannot create jobs but it can create the economic climate that will encourage inward investment and new jobs. The Government produced the policy document, Building Ireland's Smart Economy, which was the first positive approach to attracting new high-tech industries. We will need a highly educated workforce to fit into such an economy. Costs must be reduced to attract new industries and companies to Ireland. Cost competitiveness, along with the quality and availability of the workforce, will be important factors in assisting a company in deciding to locate in Ireland. Ireland largely depends on fossil fuels for energy production, fuels which are fast running out. To ensure high quality and reliable power supply to new industries, the Government is building a new interconnector.

The green energy programme, which I proposed many months ago in the House, has been introduced by the Government and the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. The national energy efficiency retrofit programme now employs 16,000 people from the construction industry. This year, the Department has increased the grants available which will bring another 5,000 people to work in the programme.

Last year, I invited the Spirit of Ireland organisation, a national project for energy independence, to make a presentation in the audio-visual room in Leinster House. I propose that all Senators and Deputies listen to the proposal. The group is in the House today meeting with the Joint Committee on Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. It could create up to 100,000 new jobs in the construction of five new power stations, which will be run by turbo and wind energy that will get us away from our dependence on fossil fuels. In itself, that would create close to 50,000 new sustainable jobs. It will also guarantee a new energy industry for this country. This is what the smart economy is about — being smarter, more efficient and using natural resources better. That is why we must move to the smart economy.

Senator John Paul Phelan spoke about the bad old days but the bad old days will always come around. The US, one of the biggest countries in the world, had the worst recession in the 1930s and is now back in the same situation. No one can say we will not get into a recession again. I have seen five recessions, three of them in the UK and two in Ireland. The blame game is pointless. The job of Members, in government and in opposition, is to be constructive and find solutions. We find solutions in the new proposals outlined in today's debate. These debates are important.

McDonald's will spend €12 million on four new restaurants creating 250 new jobs. This is very welcome. Probiotec Limited will establish a new European manufacturing operation in Dundalk, which will start off with 70 new jobs. That is welcome because it is a sign we are producing the correct climate, with low taxation, which acts as an incentive for companies to move to Ireland. Having a local market of 500 million people in the EU is also an incentive and is vitally important. There is further investment by Apple on Grafton Street, with 25 new jobs being created in a shop selling retail goods for Apple. These are positive developments and I encourage the Opposition and the Government to listen to all proposals.

Our biggest problem is that we cannot provide sufficient capital to small and medium-sized enterprises. They are crying out for credit. The banks' proposal is to increase rates by 0.5%. That will add €60 to the average household mortgage when the Government introduced a budget that tried to reduce costs. The banks are adding costs. I would also force AIB to sell its overseas assets, which are worth €1.9 billion or €2.3 billion depending on what commentator one listens to. Most of the banks are running down their investments in other countries and it is time we considered that. Instead of providing capitalisation of €4 billion, we would only have to provide €2 billion. It is important we consider every aspect of where we can capitalise and spend less money on banks. If we have a controlling share in the banks, I suggest the Minister outlines guidelines for lending and identifies a certain number of billion euro that should be provided from the banking sector for investment in new job creation in small and medium-sized enterprises and multinationals. We must consider where are the opportunities.

I do not want to go over time and want to ensure we have an orderly finish to the debate. Although the Minister of State is not responsible, I ask him and the Minister for Finance to consider the matter of finance for small businesses. If we keep them open we retain jobs; if we close them our expenditure increases by €20,000 per employee. We have an obligation to ensure these people remain in business for as long as possible.