Donie Cassidy (Fianna Fail)

The employer job PRSI incentive scheme was announced in the 2010 budget. The scheme is a job creation support scheme. The objective of the programme is to counter the drift of people into long-term unemployment and welfare dependency by exempting employers from liability to pay their share of PRSI contributions – 8.5% or 10.75% of gross pay. The scheme will run for the calendar year 2010. However, any qualifying employment created in 2010 will be eligible for the scheme, which will be structured so the employment created prior to the launch can participate for 12 months from the time of launch and employment created later in the year will participate for 12 months to the corresponding date in 2011. For example, in the case of a qualifying employment created prior to the launch of the scheme, standard employer and employee PRSI will be paid but following approval for the scheme the employer will benefit from a PRSI exemption for 12 months from the date of approval. Rebates of PRSI will not be a feature of the scheme. Some 500 employers have signed on since the scheme was proposed in budget 2010 and this has given us 3,000 jobs. This speaks for the success of the scheme. I welcome sustainable funds, employment subsidy funds and the other initiatives of the Government to create up to 5,000 jobs up to July.

We all know that it is not the public sector or the Government that will bring the economy back from where it is today. The self-employed and those who give employment through the years will do so. Looking back on the 1987 recession, there were 1.1 million people employed in the country. Today, some 1.78 million people are employed. That is a major amount of work done by the Government over the past number of years and particularly the Governments over the past 20 years. They have worked to create 700,000 new jobs on the island of Ireland. A great deal has been achieved and we have gone through a difficult time. I welcome the €6 billion committed in the last budget from the two major banks over the next two years. This will be a great help to people who can give employment and who are employers with a good track record. I call on the Government to ensure the watchdog monitoring the €6 billion for new jobs to be created reports to the Government on a bimonthly basis. This House intends to be the watchdog of that committee and intends the Minister to be answerable and present in the House to update us on the situation, the moneys made available and the employment generated from the investment of the €6 billion. Some 1,200 new jobs were announced by the IDA this year, 20,000 jobs promised to be created in the next 12 months and 35,000 jobs in the following 12 months.