John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after ''Seanad Éireann'' and substitute the following:

- condemns the Government's handling of the economy with more people now on the live register than at any other point in Irish history;

- criticises the scale and nature of the Government's banking bail out while still not having any significant jobs plan to get people back to work;

- acknowledges that Fine Gael first proposed the policy of an employers' PRSI holiday to promote new job growth in December 2008 and that since then there has been an additional 150,000 people added to the live register;

- recognises that the jobs crisis now requires a greater response from Government;

and calls on the Government to implement Fine Gael's Hope for a Lost Generation and NewERA policies to make an immediate impact in the labour market and return the economy to a sustainable and competitive position.

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Áine Brady. I do not intend to criticise her personally in saying there are many Ministers of State in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation and the Department of Finance who could be present. I know the Minister of State has an important job to do in the Department of Health and Children. For a long time I have been asking the Leader to get her into the Seanad to speak on the issue of care of the elderly. We should have one of the Ministers of State from the relevant Departments present.

It is ironic that we are having this discussion tonight, as we had a debate on job creation eight days ago. We are often correctly criticised by people outside the House in this regard. To debate the same issue a few days later seems to make no sense when Senators are making suggestions about issues we need to discuss.

Of course, I welcome the Government's decision to introduce the employers' PRSI incentive scheme, as this proposal was first mooted 19 months ago by Deputy Leo Varadkar on behalf of Fine Gael. The Government failed in that 19 months to introduce the measure but better late than never. An extra 150,000 were made unemployed in that period. I do not want to personally criticise any of the previous speakers, but I have a few things that I want to get off my chest about unemployment.

I acknowledge the efforts made by Senator Mooney over many years to reach out to Irish emigrants overseas. I do not believe anyone in the Oireachtas has done more than he has. However, the sad reality is that his party has ensured there is a new generation of Irish emigrants overseas, people who have had to leave Ireland because they cannot get work here. From the policies recklessly pursued by the Taoiseach when Minister for Finance and other Members of the Cabinet we are reaping an horrific dividend for the population. Very few families do not have members who have either emigrated in the last couple of years or are not considering doing so. A shocking number of my friends have left, mostly to Canada but some to Australia and New Zealand. This is not just a disaster for the economy and their families but also a personal disaster for them. It is the one thing Fianna Fáil and its friends in government can never answer - post the Celtic tiger, Ireland once again has to export its people in order that they can earn a livelihood. The Government failed miserably in its years in office to ensure that when the rainy day came, we were prepared to deal with it.

I acknowledge the Government has made some efforts. When the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Deputy Kelleher, was in the House last week, he outlined what was happening in South-East Asia. That is a shining example of a good news story in the sense that we are now exporting more to China than we are importing from there. There is huge potential in that market. This indicates that there are other avenues open to the Government and its agencies which they must pursue to get out us out of the difficulties we are facing.

Touching on what Senator Mooney had to say about the banking crisis, while I have never held a candle for the banks, the political reality is that many of our financial institutions were very close to the Government in the past 13 years. Some are still very close to it. We are investing billions of euro in the nationalisation and recapitalisation of Anglo Irish Bank, virtually none of which we shall see again. Put simply, it was there for the benefit of developers, their friends and those of Fianna Fáil. This was a political decision. The bank is not of systemic importance to the banking system. The Government is now looking at the Fine Gael proposal of an orderly wind-down of the bank, in which we are investing €22 billion. Will the Minister of State say what we could do with that money in terms of job creation measures? Senator Quinn always makes the point - he is correct - that too much emphasis is often placed by Opposition speakers on the role the Government can play in creating jobs. It is not the Government's responsibility to create jobs, but it is its responsibility to ensure the conditions are created in which jobs can be created. What could we do with that €22 billion, or even a fraction of it, if it had not been thrown down the drain of Anglo Irish Bank? What has happened is completely unjustifiable.

The unemployment statistics are shocking. We have the third highest rate of unemployment in the European Union. It is touching 14%. One in three men under 25 years is unemployed. While the figures are stark, they are masked slightly by the fact that so many have emigrated. Many immigrants, mostly from eastern Europe but from other areas also, who came here to work when the economy was flourishing have also left. It is estimated that somewhere in the region of 17% or 18% have left at this stage.

I challenge the notion that we have turned the corner. I am glad that neither Senator Mooney nor Senator Mary White used this expression, as there is widespread disagreement on the issue. According to the best economic predictions, while there will be growth, it will be growth in the numbers who are jobless. The worst analyses indicate that we have not yet hit the bottom and that there will be further hardship inflicted on the economy and taxpayers in the course of the next year or so.

We are speaking about the employers' job incentive scheme. This issue was last raised in May by Deputy Varadkar in the other House with the Minister for Employment, Trade and Innovation, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, who deflected it to the Department of Finance. He did not indicate that the Government was prepared to do anything about it.

Something interesting happened a little more than a year ago when the vice president of Pfizer, one of the country's largest employers, pleaded with the Government to introduce measures to protect and create jobs. A couple of months ago Pfizer announced that it was laying off nearly 800 workers. The Government had not acted on the plea of Pfizer's vice president, so the company had to take the action it did. That is a shocking indictment on the Government's slow response to this issue.

The Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, has had four gos at trying to correct the difficulties in the banking sector through recapitalisation. It is clear to all at this stage the only way to ensure a resumption of credit flow to individuals and businesses is through the establishment of a national recovery bank. This was championed several years ago by Deputy Richard Bruton but was never acted upon by the Government. It is acknowledged by most independent observers now that some institutions in the existing banking system will never be able to lend again. Will the Government reconsider the setting up of a national recovery bank, the one mechanism that will lead to cash being injected into the economy once more?

Fine Gael has come up with several job creation proposals. I disagree with the lack of priority given by the Government to tackling unemployment. The State has had fiscal and banking difficulties with the Government placing all its emphasis on resolving the banking one. The only way we can resolve falling tax receipts is through getting people back to work and therefore into the tax net. I have still not heard any realistic proposal in this regard from the Government.

Fine Gael's policy documents on youth unemployment, Hope for a Lost Generation, produced by Deputy Leo Varadkar, and job creation, NewERA, specifically outline several measures the Government could take in job creation. Hope for a Lost Generation proposes a national internship programme with placements in the public sector for people leaving college, second-chance education, an apprenticeship guarantee scheme to be operated with the Office of Public Works, community employment schemes and work share programmes.

I am not convinced the Government has a clear policy on job creation and how to overcome current employment difficulties. I cannot support such a self-congratulatory motion as the one tabled tonight.