Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

I move:

Seanad Éireann welcomes the Government's new Employer Job (PRSI) Incentive Scheme which will help to create jobs and get people back to work.

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. This motion in the name of the Government side welcomes the Government's new employers' job PRSI incentive scheme which will help to create jobs and get people back to work. I appreciate that the detail of it will be discussed over and back, and no doubt the Minister of State will elaborate on it, and therefore I will not go into that other than to state that the Government expects this initiative to create some 10,000 new jobs.

I am particularly pleased that in small and medium-sized enterprises it applies to those who have a maximum of five workers and that the scheme will save an employer in the region of €3,000 from the annual cost of employing an additional worker.

I agree with the analysis of the reasons it has been introduced now. One of the reasons is that those who are short-term unemployed are more likely to join the workforce than those who fall into a longer unemployment pattern after six months and then, consequently, become social welfare dependent. Obviously, the Government has recognised the dangers of this happening and that is one of the reasons it has introduced this initiative.

Of course, employers will not be allowed to substitute existing employees to avail of the scheme. This also limits the maximum participation rate to 5% of their existing workforce or for smaller companies, a maximum of five new jobs.

One of the things that has interested me during my time here is the regular criticism from those who oppose the Government that there is never a plan. It has always bemused me somewhat because there has been and will continue to be a plan which is coherent, effective and that will work.