Terry Brennan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire go dtí an Seanad. Creating new jobs will continue to be the top priority for the Government. Too many people throughout the country have yet to see evidence of the recovery that is taking place. That is why the Government designated 2014 as the year for jobs.

It is critical to create more jobs and to improve living standards. Just as we had a plan to exit the bailout, we now have a plan for the creation of jobs. The Action Plan for Jobs 2014 has a strong focus on the domestic economy, improving competitiveness and supporting our entrepreneurs and small businesses. There can be no let-up in the Minister's effort until we return to full employment.

This Government came to office when Ireland was losing 7,000 jobs each month. Now we are gaining 5,000 jobs per month. We must not forget this. I honestly believe that we are wrong not to blow our trumpet more about generating these jobs. We should be highlighting the facts more vociferously and more often.

We can afford to be more confident about our prospects than at any time since the crisis began. It is now time to focus on the future and finishing the job of economic recovery, of creating more jobs and building a better Ireland. To do we need to focus on supporting the construction industry, which has gone from being overblown during the boom to being undersized in its wake.

Some two and a half years ago when the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation published the first Action Plan for Jobs he stated there is no big bang solution to the employment crisis. We need to build systematically brick by brick a sustainable growing economy which can create the jobs we need. During the past two years we have been grinding out the reforms very successfully and have implemented more than 500 actions to improve our competitiveness, support Irish and multinational companies and target sectors of potential. The Minister is not blowing his trumpet often enough. We have seen the results. Our competitiveness rankings are improving, our exports are growing and we are now creating jobs faster than any other economy in the EU. Despite this, many people are not experiencing the impact of these results and we have a long way to go, but real progress is being made. Where previously we shed 1,600 jobs per week, we are now benefiting from an additional 1,200 jobs a week. That is great news.

A couple of years ago I identified in this Chamber what I believe is an absolute necessity, that is, the development of small industrial sites. From my experience in the Border county of County Louth I am aware of four SMEs which I have been following from their inception. In two cases these small enterprises are exporting to the five continents of the world. One business, which has between 12 and 15 employees, was started in the kitchen and developed to the space in the garage, but due to the lack of available space, they had to go to Northern Ireland. They have grown to the extent that they cannot expand any further because of the lack of space in the unit in Northern Ireland. I know of three other similar cases of growth. I think it should be the aim to create facilities through the IDA and in co-operation with local authorities so that we establish developed industrial sites of a couple of thousand square feet to avail of the opportunity. I am from the Cooley Peninsula and I see that the local SMEs have to cross the Border to Northern Ireland to get adequate space in these industrial units. The four local concerns employ 60 people between them, some of whom are from the Cooley Peninsula. There is an opportunity to develop small-scale sites in different parts of the county to facilitate the SME sector.

It would be remiss of me not to congratulate the Minister. He speaks with great enthusiasm and gusto and he is doing a fantastic job.