Tom Shehan (Fine Gael)

I welcome this afternoon's announcement of the infrastructure stimulus package aimed at labour-intensive sectors of the economy, including construction. We need to rebuild our construction sector to provide trade jobs. Funding will be in the region of €2 billion and I am delighted this will include a new primary care centre for Tralee.

While this is a positive investment I would also like to point out that if we want sustained job creation we have to focus on small and medium Irish enterprises. Small, family-run Irish companies are providing thousands of sustainable jobs. There are two pressing problems for the SME sector. In a recent survey 41% of SMEs reported a drop in turnover, 79% said their employee levels were constant and 21% had decreased employee numbers. Some 72% reported a profit or achieved break-even. Why it is so hard for the SME sector to get credit from banks is hard to understand. There are pressing problems on the sector. Business costs for small and medium enterprises, utility costs and local charges have increased by almost 10% in the past 12 months and there is also a continuing lack of credit from the pillar banks. We have to act on this straight away in the name of job creation and, while I welcome the stimulus package, I call for real and practical help for the small business sector.