Vol. 438 No. 4
8 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment whether he proposes to establish a separate division for services which would ensure the extension of measures to build business capabilities to this vital sector.
I take it that the question is referring to the recommendation contained in the report of the Task Force on Jobs in Services, PN 0321, that my Department should form a separate division for services whose functions would include the formulation and co-ordination of policy on services and the design and maintenance of a knowledge-information base on services.
This recommendation is under consideration at present in my Department and any organisational changes which result will be announced in due course.
The Minister may need time to consider this suggestion. Is he aware that in the past five years ten times as many jobs were created in the service sector as in the industrial sector? The service sector employs twice as many people per £1 of output and sources 50 per cent more of its purchases in Ireland than the industrial sector, yet it is forced to bear four times the rate of profit tax. The Minister's Department and other Departments lend little support to the efforts of employers in this sector to start up and make a success of businesses. Will he not agree that there must be a strong presumption in favour of establishing a division of this nature in his Department to redress some of the bias against this important sector?
There is much merit in what the Deputy says. I am not in disagreement with many of the observations he has offered to the House. The small business task force under the chairmanship of the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise and Employment, Deputy Brennan, is about to complete its deliberations and I will await its recommendations. Many of the small businesses represented on that task force are in the service sector.
There is merit in the recommendation that there should be greater focus and emphasis on the role played by the services industry in creating sustainable employment in the economy. However, I make a distinction between internationally traded services and domestic services within the Irish market.
