David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and I thank him for taking statements on this issue. The Minister has been in the House several times to be held to account as well as to outline his initiatives and the Government policies on jobs. That should be commended.

It is difficult in the time available to critique Government policy, to commend it and offer solutions. I tend to do my work in the Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and I have published a comprehensive report on the south-east economic development strategy which sets out a number of very clear actions, many of which have not been implemented. These actions are realistic, practical and deliverable. They need to be delivered.

I have taken on the responsibility of publishing on behalf of the Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation a report on low pay and the living wage. That is important in the context of the contribution I will make because unemployment is moving in the right direction, in terms of fewer people being unemployed and more jobs being created. We should commend the Government on the positive initiatives it has undertaken. There are areas of concern in relation to the overall figures of which policy-makers and Government need to be conscious.

Ireland has the third highest rate of underemployment in the European Union, with 127,300 workers across the State underemployed. We know that more than 400,000 people have emigrated. If they were still here, the unemployment figure would be much higher. Many people are on labour activation courses, having come off the liver register, but are not in employment. I accept that more people are in work, more jobs have been created, and fewer people are unemployed, but we must look at the complete picture. While some of it is down to the positive work of the Government, much is also down to the fact that entrepreneurs and business people are doing their best in difficult circumstances, especially in the SME area. High levels of low pay and underemployment will undermine the sustainability of the economic recovery and deepen inequality.

The lopsided economic development has been mentioned. The south east was the area with the highest unemployment rate in the State, but now we are the second highest. Obviously there have been some interventions with more jobs being created. We are no longer the unemployment blackspot or region with the highest rate and have been replaced by the midlands. It shows that those areas of the south east and the midlands are not getting the attention they need and we are not creating the jobs to the extent that we should. I have no difficulty with clustering jobs in Dublin, such as high-tech jobs because that is good for the entire State. We also must have similar clustering in the regions. The south east, as Members know, has major high-tech industries and technology linking in with the institutes of technology in Waterford and Carlow. We also do very well in life sciences and in the pharmaceutical, farming and agribusiness sectors. We have to look at the strengths of all of the region and then put in place policies that play to those strengths, exploit them and address the weaknesses. That is what the Government should do. While some of that is being done in the south east and I welcome some of the positive interventions the Minister has made, we still have a long way to go in the south east, the midlands and other parts of the country. Many people in Waterford say to me, but it might be a perception, that when they turn on the radio, they hear about jobs being created in Dublin, Cork and Galway but seldom an announcement about the creation of jobs in Waterford.

We have had some recovery but nothing like the scale we have seen in bigger cities. That creates a perception - and for many, a reality - that we have a two-tier economic recovery; that there is a greater recovery in bigger urban centres, but not so much outside Cork and Dublin, and to a lesser extent Galway also.

I wish to deal with some of the issues arising from the Minister's strategy, including the jobs plan. When the Government announced the credit guarantee scheme two years ago, the Minister told us that €450 million would be available to benefit 5,600 businesses creating 4,000 jobs in three years. The Government has clearly fallen short on those figures. The volume of loans guaranteed to date is €15 million - which is far short of what the target was meant to be - creating 110 companies and creating 870 jobs. I am not benchmarking the Minister against my aspirations, but I am doing so against the targets set by the Minister and the Government.

The promised credit guarantee Bill is supposed to address shortfalls in the original scheme. It was due to be published during the current Dáil session but we have seen no sign of it. I am being told that I must conclude but in six minutes it is difficult to make a constructive, wholesome contribution on an issue as important as jobs.

While I welcome some of the positive contributions and interventions that have been made by the Government, we still have a long way to go. Unemployment is still far too high and we have a problem concerning regional development. The current administration and leadership of the IDA seem to have a different mind-set and a more positive outlook on regional development than their predecessors. I welcome that because it will be good news for the south east as well. We need to look holistically at this matter. In addition, the Minister needs to work with his partners in Government.

One of the big issues in the south east was the creation of a university but that seems to have fallen apart at the seams. I am sure the Minister recognises it would be a game-changer in terms of job creation in the region.

There should be a joined-up approach between Cabinet Ministers who should be alert to all these issues. They should be providing solutions not just for the bigger urban centres of Dublin, Cork and Galway but also for Waterford and other cities, in addition to rural areas.