I move:
(1) That it is expedient that a Joint Committee of both Houses of the Oireachtas (which shall be called the Joint Committee on Employment) consisting of 15 members of Dáil Éireann and 4 members of Seanad Éireann (none of whom shall be a member of the Government or Minister of State), be appointed
(a) to examine and make recommendations on all aspects of economic and social policy which have a bearing on employment creation and which can contribute to alleviating unemployment and
(b) to consider and make recommendations on any other issues or subjects which the Joint Committee considers relevant to its task
and report thereon to both Houses of the Oireachtas at least three times a year.
(2) That the Joint Committee shall have power to appoint subcommittees (which may consist of members of the Oireachtas who are not members of the Joint Committee) and to delegate any matter comprehended by paragraph (1) to a subcommittee.
(3) That the Joint Committee shall have power to nominate persons who are representatives from interested bodies to assist each subcommittee in its deliberations.
(4) That the Joint Committee shall have power to send for persons, papers and records and, subject to the consent of the Minister for Finance, the Joint Committee shall have the power to engage the services of persons with specialist or technical knowledge to assist it or any of its subcommittees in their consideration of any matters comprehended by paragraph (1).
(5) That, where a matter which has been delegated to a subcommittee under paragraph (2) is to be considered at a meeting of the Joint Committee, members of that subcommittee shall be notified of such meeting and shall be allowed to attend and take part in the proceedings thereof without having a right to vote; and persons nominated under paragraph (3) may be invited to attend such meetings to assist the Joint Committee in its deliberations.
(6) That provision be made for the appointment of substitutes to act for members of the Joint Committee (and members of subcommittees who are members of the Oireachtas) who are unable to attend particular meetings.
(7) That the Joint Committee, previous to the commencement of business, shall elect one of its members to be Chairman, who shall have only one vote; and shall appoint from among the members of each subcommittee a member of the Oireachtas to be the Chairman of that subcommittee.
(8) That all questions in the Joint Committee shall be determined by a majority of votes of the members present and voting and in the event of there being an equality of votes the question shall be decided in the negative.
(9) That every report which the Joint Committee proposes to make shall, on adoption by the Joint Committee, be laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas forthwith, whereupon the Joint Committee shall be empowered to print and publish such report, together with such related documents as it thinks fit.
(10) That the quorum of the Joint Committee shall be four, of whom at least one shall be a member of Dáil Éireann and one a member of Seanad Éireann, and that the quorum of each subcommittee shall be three.
The Government have put unemployment at the top of their agenda and their economic and social policies have been geared accordingly. The establishment of the joint committee now offers the Government and Opposition the opportunity to adopt a consensus approach to a problem which, to a greater or lesser degree, has dogged policy makers for decades. The joint committee gives the Oireachtas the opportunity of contributing to the job creation process. In addition, the committee through its sub-committees will be able to avail of the experience, advice and energy of parties and individuals interested in the question of employment and unemployment.
Our employment performance compares unfavourably with those of our EC partners. Between 1980 and 1991 Ireland's unemployment rate rose from 7.3 per cent to 20 per cent. Most of this took place in a surge between 1980 and 1984 and was attributed to the prevailing level of real interest rates, UK demand shocks, and increased participation in the labour force. The economy was affected by adverse factors which were roughly evenly split between those affecting labour supply and labour demand.
The rise in unemployment during the past year is attributable to the global recession and the related occurrence of a dramatic decline in the numbers emigrating. During the 1980s emigration started to increase after a decade during which the upward trend had been reversed. In the three years April 1987 to April 1990 average net emigration was 35,000 persons per year. The countries to which Irish people traditionally emigrate, Britain and the United States, were experiencing expansion of their labour markets, making them attractive destinations for Irish people seeking jobs. After peaking in 1989-90 emigration has declined sharply until in 1990-91 it amounted to only 1,000 in net terms. The Irish demographic situation is such that the labour force has the potential to grow by between 2 and 2.5 per cent a year.
Last Friday's unemployment figures were the highest ever recorded by the live register. At present, one in five of all persons who would like to work are for one reason or another unable to find a job. If this continues unchecked the cost to the State in terms of hardship, social exclusion and wasted human potential, drained financial resources and weakened future growth prospects will be immeasurable. These figures add an increased urgency — if any were needed — for us all to act together in the interests of increased employment.
Rising unemployment is not unique to Ireland: it is, unfortunately, part of a global trend. Since the beginning of 1991 unemployment has risen by over 2 million in the USA. Australia, Canada, Finland and the UK have all witnessed similar percentage increases in unemployment to that recorded here. From a situation where many governments believed two years ago that they had solved the unemployment problem, unemployment has resumed its place at the top of governments' agendas. In addition, many of these countries are not experiencing the same growth in the labour force or the phenomenon of returning emigrants as Ireland.
The Irish economy has performed very well over the past four years and is continuing to do so, despite the protracted worldwide recession.
In starting its task, the committee can look to the following achievements of recent years: GNP growth has averaged over 4 per cent a year (7.5 per cent in 1990); we have maintained one of the lowest inflation rates in Europe; we have a stable exchange rate; and rates of personal taxation have been significantly reduced, particularly for the lower paid, and the Exchequer returns for the first quarter of 1992 show a rise of nine per cent in revenue receipts compared with the same period last year.
The OECD have forecast that growth in Irish GNP will be of the order of 2.5 per cent in 1992 and 3.3 per cent in 1993. This compares favourably with growth predictions for other OECD countries.
I have mentioned these achievements to point out that the economic foundation for the work of this committee has already been laid. It is vital that we hold our nerve and do not allow ourselves to be pushed into panic action for the sake of political expediency or just to be seen to be "doing something". This view is supported by the ESRI and OECD. Last year the ESRI stated:
It is very difficult to discover measures which could ameliorate the unemployment problem in the short term without exacerbating it in the longer-term ... To increase the budget deficit further in an attempt to combat unemployment arising from international economic trends would be foolhardy and could jeopardise the economic strategy on which sustained employment growth depends.
The OECD, in their 1991 commentary, concurred:
Persistence with the considerable policy efforts already embarked upon provides the best chance for the continuation of the impressive economic performance achieved over the past three years.
But we cannot be happy with merely saying that our employment performance is no worse than other countries; giving a list of the measures taken by Government; or referring to progress on many domestic economic — but non-employment — measures. This is essentially the reason for setting up the joint committee. As I have said, the committee provides for the Oireachtas an opportunity to contribute in a structured way to the job creation debate.
The joint committee has my wholehearted support. Under the Constitution the Government and Ministers are responsible to the Oireachtas and it would not be the intention of Ministers to participate in the role of the joint committee. The Dáil reforms proposed by Deputy Bruton adopted a similar position in relation to the appearance of Ministers. The committee will start their work with a number of advantages. They will have: a basis in the broad agreement reached between all parties following hard but constructive preparatory work: a sound economic basis — I have already referred to this — a number of recent reports on the employment situation; the work and output of a number of committees and task forces interested in employment; the capacity to adopt a broad-based approach to the employment problem transcending institutionals divisions of responsibility and work; and the good will of all our people.
The release of the Culliton report together with the various submissions to that group has given us an analytical and prescriptive basis to approach the employment problem. This report, together with the reports of the National Economic and Social Council, particularly Strategy for the Nineties, will provide background material for the committee's deliberations.
The Culliton report contained recommendations under a number of headings: taxation; infrastructure; education; technology; industry-support; and the food industry. Culliton was also critical of the lack of an enterprise culture in Ireland. The development of such a culture and the inculcation of the positive attitudes towards more business starts and expansion will be an important task for the committee.
The Tansey Roche report for Culliton on industrial training in Ireland contains a number of recommendations which we will need to consider. These include: the role of the education system in producing modern, high-level skills support competitiveness; training of those at work: and the role of FÁS.
There exists a number of committees and institutions to deal with different aspects of the employment issue. The central review committee with responsibility for monitoring the implementation of the Programme for Economic and Social Progress have devoted a considerable amount of their work to the question of how to increase employment and reduce unemployment. The Task Force on Employment are representative of employers' organisations, trade unions, individual employers and official agencies and were set up a year ago.
The task force have made a series of recommendations to Government on specific actions that could be taken to increase employment levels or reduce unemployment levels. These include: commercial State bodies producing components and products to supply the demand of the multinational companies in Ireland; third-level institutions creating additional places; that courses provided by the private third-level institutions be recognised as appropriate, for the higher education grants in order to improve access and the new job training scheme.
There now exists a Government committee comprising the Taoiseach, the Ministers for Industry and Commerce, Finance and the Environment and myself to follow up on the recommendations of the Culliton Group. This committee of the Government are supported by a committee of Departmental secretaries and others.
Much of the work of the National Economic and Social Council which is representative of agricultural interests, industry, employers, the construction industry, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the National Youth Council have concentrated on the employment problem.
The joint committee will have to build on the advice and recommendations available from previous consultancy and research work and existing institutions. They will have to develop an "employment strategy" incorporating relevant elements from the reports of the Industrial Policy Review Committee, the Task Force on employment, the NESC and the work of various Departments. This would recognise the inter-dependence of different policy initiatives in the employment generation process and would achieve greater cohesion, consistency and co-ordination among them in order to achieve maximum employment growth. The effects on employment of the tax system, industrial incentives, social welfare payments, education and training and other policies will have to be looked at. We must avoid any conflict between policies. All policies and programmes must support our job creation effort.
The committee must ensure that Ireland's record on employment generation is as good as the past EC standards. While the employment level increased by 40,000 since 1987 and a further 6,000 net new jobs are forecast for this year this growth is not enough to accommodate the numbers of people out of work and those entering the labour market.
We must attempt to identify those conditions specific to Ireland which adversely affect the Irish labour market. We must reach a consensus on those features of the Irish economy which differ from other more successful economies and adversely affect our capacity to generate jobs. In addition, the committee will have to take account of future radical changes in the labour market, including: increased global competition; the accelerating pace of the application and diffusion of new technologies; the further replacement of manufacturing by services; the increased liberalisation of trade, capital and labour coinciding with the completion of the Single European Market; increased attraction of the EC free movement of labour provisions for our young, well-educated labour force; increased demand by foreign employers for such labour; and the shift in economic equilibrium caused by the recent developments in Central and Eastern Europe.
It would be unrealistic to expect a sudden flow of jobs sufficient to resolve the unemployment problem. In that respect, I recently negotiated with the EC the terms of two schemes with a target take-up of 25,000 which should help relieve some of the pressures on the unemployed.
The employment subsidy scheme is now fully operational. To date, there have been approximately 1,400 jobs approved and 210 employees have been recruited. In brief terms, an employer will receive a subsidy of £54 a week in respect of each additional worker taken on above a base level of last November if the worker has been two months minimum on the live register. Payments will be made in arrears.
The job training scheme launched in March, represents a major breakthrough in support for training by employers. FÁS studies indicate that well over half of Irish employees receive no training of any sort in a year. Figures for training by Irish employers show that only 20 per cent of trainees receive formal off-the-job training each year. In addition, there has been little increase in the amount of employee training in Ireland over the last number of years. Under the scheme, trainees will receive the appropriate FÁS training allowance and the firms will recoup 75 per cent of that expenditure. The scheme represents a major improvement in our training arrangements, one on which we will build in the future.
The transfer of EC Structural Funds has significantly contributed to the development of our economy. The development of our human resources aided by these funds has been a central element in our national development programme since the mid-sixties. Over the period, the quality of the Irish workforce has improved.
Following Maastricht, the Government are looking for a doubling of the Structural Funds in the five-year period after 1993 as a contribution to cohesion in living standards throughout the European Community. This doubling should include the allocation of additional financial resources for training. An increase in the level and quality of training could have a significant impact on the unemployment rate in Ireland. All the evidence suggests that the better trained get jobs.
In conclusion, I would like to emphasise the importance of the committee and wish the chairman and his committee well in their work. The issues involved are difficult and complex. If unemployment was easy to solve we would have solved it by now given the amount of time, effort and energy devoted to the problem. No doubt the issues will give rise to debates and discussions. It is my hope that this debate will be constructive and that whatever recommendations we arrive at will add significantly to the prospects of Ireland's future generations. I can assure committee members that their submissions and recommendations will be taken seriously by Government.
I look forward to commenting on their reports when they are laid before the House. Since we indulged in considerable preparatory work for the establishment of this committee I hope we can now proceed, affording Members of both Houses an opportunity of contributing positively to what is the biggest social problem of our time.