Denis Landy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and congratulate him on his elevation to such a high and important office. I will not go back over things already said but I am interested in two items. One is the regional action plans. The regional action plan for the south east was launched earlier this year or late last year. It committed to job targets for the south east. Senator Grace O’Sullivan referred to Waterford. I live in the south east and we are not seeing the effect on the ground. I have the figures from the local enterprise offices, LEOs, which support the jobs. The south-east area had the highest number of LEO-supported jobs but we are not seeing jobs brought forward by private industry, entrepreneurs, etc., despite all the great work that has been done. Waterford is the nearest city to where I live. I worked there for 13 years and know it very well. The Viking triangle is a fantastic addition to the city but we are not seeing jobs on the ground there. The economy is practically being run by the Waterford Institute of Technology, WIT, and University Hospital Waterford, which are the mainstays of employment in the city.

The same is true of south Tipperary, where, apart from several big pharmaceutical plants in Clonmel, there are no jobs for people. Is it the intention of this Government to continue to pursue the original action plans or does it intend to tweak them in the context of Brexit and its implications for exports? I have nothing but praise for the LEOs across the country because they do fantastic work. Are they getting to the core of supporting other industry or finding other people? I served on the first enterprise board in the country, which was set up in 1991 in Tipperary, for approximately ten years. It was one of the most rewarding things I ever did because it assisted the small SME in getting off the ground with, at that time, £5,000 per job. Many of those businesses have been successful through to today. That grant support was taken away and while I understand the financial reasons for taking it away, do we need to consider something of that nature to get jobs into rural areas? The city is thriving. Anybody who stays there will see that building is taking place on across the city. However, the regions and small towns are not experiencing the same growth. Unless we see growth in jobs coming into rural Ireland, young people will leave and come to the cities and the rush to the east coast will continue.

My second concern relates to the living wage. Senator Nash did a tremendous amount of work on this and we brought it to the position where the report is imminent. We want to see it implemented. I ask the Minister of State to see that it is implemented and that a living wage is put in place. There is always an argument with the employers' representatives but I have spoken to employers and they can see the sense of it. We provide FIS from the State coffers but if we pay people a proper wage and if this proves sustainable for both small and big industry, we will provide a greater tax base for the State.There is actually a win-win situation for everyone. We will have the arguments from employer representatives against this idea, and we have witnessed these already. However, ultimately, it seems absolutely crazy to me as a layperson that someone is in a job but because he is not being paid enough by his employer, the State is subsidising him, even though he is in a job. There has to be some sort of bottom line, some rate that people can actually live on. That is the purpose of the commission set up by Senator Nash. We all know of this anecdotally. We have the commission report and once we scope the report, I call on Minister of State to act on it. I am keen for the Minister of State to respond to these two issues in his summary.