Michael Mullins (Fine Gael)

Having called for a debate on the situation in Syria last Tuesday, I would like to support strongly my colleagues who have echoed that call this morning and who want an urgent debate in this House. We must fear that a similar situation to what happened in Bosnia in the early 1990s could happen in Syria. The matter must be discussed urgently in the House.

I call for a debate on obstacles to employment creation. We heard much about the so-called ESRI report, whether it was factual or otherwise, but we must be concerned by a report in this morning's newspaper that in the past five years a restaurateur has failed to attract any application for seasonal employment from an unemployed person. Despite the fact that the restaurateur is prepared to pay well over the minimum wage, he cannot attract anyone in receipt of social welfare benefits. That is a serious matter at a time when there are 450,000 unemployed. We must have a forthright discussion on the issues that are causing people to remain on social welfare payments as distinct from taking up part-time employment.

I welcome this morning's announcement by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton, that 37 business development managers are being appointed to community enterprise centres throughout the country, three of them in my county. This is a positive development which I hope will result in a significant number of jobs being created through the centres in the various counties. In Ballinasloe, Tuam and Galway city we very much welcome the fact that new possibilities will be created for people through these centres that are doing such good work. I wish to refer, in particular, to the centre in my town which has already created 180 jobs. We hope to see this number rise to well over 200 in the coming months.