John Kelly (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I, too, welcome the Minister to the House and compliment him on all the good work that has been done in this area by him and the Government. As previously stated, while the detractor said it could not be done, unemployment has been reduced from in excess of 15% to under 10%. It is hoped this figure will be further reduced through the use of schemes as JobsPlus, JobBridge and so on. I do not propose to reiterate all of the statistics quoted by Senators Naughton and Cummins. They speak for themselves. I would like instead to focus on rural Ireland. During the Celtic tiger era, economic growth in rural Ireland was judged on the basis of the number of houses built. Unfortunately, in many parts of Roscommon, Mayo, Leitrim, Sligo and many other counties far too many housing estates were built. In my own town of Ballaghaderreen, there are at least 200 houses that are unoccupied and will never be occupied because there was never a need for them in the first instance.

There is a big difference between economic growth in the cities as distinct from rural Ireland. During the past three or four years since I came to Dublin, there has been no sign of the recession here. However, when I go to my home town at the weekend, all I hear from people is doom and gloom because nothing is happening there. I know that the Minister has committed to a return to full employment by 2018 but I would like to know how he proposes to address the issues arising in that regard in towns like Ballaghaderreen, Castlerea, Boyle, Swinford, Charlestown and so on. In this regard, I make the following suggestion. Consideration should be given to the zoning of a substantial track of land around Knock Airport as a tax-free zone, as was done in the context of the Shannon free zone, one of Ireland's earliest tax reduction initiatives administered by the Shannon Free Airport Development Company.It was one of Ireland's earliest tax reduction initiatives. In order to establish an operation in a free zone, a licence is required from the Customs-Free Airport (Amendment) Act 1958. This licence is issued by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Employment. We should focus purely on job creation. The IFSC was set up primarily as a job creation measure. I know there would be issues of displacement if, for example, one set up an industry in a tax free zone where there was a similar industry that was not in a tax free zone. It could impact on the latter industry. I am aware of many industries that we could bring to those areas. It is in the Minister's gift. He can decide what industries can come to a tax free zone. I know of one company that manufactures affordable houses in China and would gladly come to Ireland if there was an incentive for it to do so because labour is so cheap in China that it would need something like this. I ran this idea by two county managers in Mayo and Roscommon and both of them agreed that there would be serious merit in considering this because one is then talking about creating a hub of employment around Knock Airport where people from Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon and even some parts of east Galway would be able to avail of work. I would appreciate it if the Minister would consider what I propose.