I wish to share my time with Deputy Tommy Broughan.
Training Programmes: Motion (Resumed).
The following motion was moved by Deputy Leo Varadkar on Tuesday, 4 November 2008:
That Dáil Éireann:
notes that the number of people seeking training programmes will rise rapidly as a consequence of:
the numbers on the live register increasing by nearly 50% over the past twelve months; and
the projected 8% unemployment rate for 2009;
notes that the standardised unemployment rate is at a nine year high with unemployment in Ireland now higher than in the United States, Britain, Japan, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Poland, Singapore and South Korea, among others; and
calls on Government to:
restructure publicly funded training programmes to make training provision more responsive to a rapidly changing labour market and economy;
conduct a comprehensive expenditure audit of FÁS to ensure that the taxpayer's substantial investment is getting best value for money;
consider the needs of small and medium sized businesses when developing and promoting training services; and
change the eligibility criteria for the back to education allowance to open up access to further education for the unemployed.
Debate resumed on amendment No. 1:
To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:
"recognises:
the increase in the number of people signing on the live register; and
that the Government has taken early action to address the deterioration in economic and fiscal prospects by introducing the 2009 budget early;
supports the Government in:
stabilising the financial services sector so that Irish enterprises, small, medium and large, have improved access to funds, thereby protecting jobs and Irish economic growth;
its management of the economy and employment market to date in challenging global circumstances, which means that Ireland meets the current challenges from a strong position with over 640,000 jobs having been created over the last eleven years and over 2.1 million in employment;
the measures it is putting in place to ensure that those who become unemployed are assisted with employment services and training programmes to help them return to employment;
the retraining of those previously employed in the construction sector;
the additional resources being provided from the National Training Fund for training those who become unemployed, including the measures being taken to help apprentices to complete their training despite the current conditions in the construction sector;
the strong successes that have been achieved in attracting foreign direct investment to Ireland;
the substantial support given to community employment projects, which give people employment experience and assist in their return to the open labour market;
the continued training and upskilling of the workforce in line with the National Skills Strategy by various agencies including FÁS and Skillnets;
the work of the county and city enterprise boards who have a clearly defined role as the principal deliverers of State support to the micro-enterprise sector in Ireland and who deliver targeted valuable assistance, both financial and non-financial, to business start-ups with good growth and employment potential;
and acknowledges that:
the Comptroller and Auditor General has acceded to the Tánaiste's request to review certain activities in FÁS;
the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has begun a review of labour market programmes with a focus on their efficiency and effectiveness;
the FÁS One Step Up Programme and the Skillnets Training Networks Programme include a particular focus on being responsive to the needs of small and medium sized enterprises;
the Management Development Council is currently reviewing the appropriateness of available training for owner/managers in the SME sector; and
the conditions for the back to education allowance have been amended to provide immediate access to the scheme for people who are awarded statutory redundancy and have established an entitlement to a social welfare payment and notes the increased participation in this scheme."
—(Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade andEmployment, Deputy Billy Kelleher).
Is that agreed? Agreed.
I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on this motion on unemployment and the budget. I thank Fine Gael for tabling such a relevant motion at this time.
Three weeks have elapsed since the coalition Government brought forward the earliest and probably the worst budget in the history of the State. The first two weeks of these three brought more than 40,000 people to the gates of the Dáil. Some 20,000 senior citizens braved the elements on two successive days to protest against the effective theft of the medical card from those over 70. Approximately 10,000 third level students quickly followed their elders to the barricades to protest against the attempt to reintroduce third level fees by the back door by way of stealth taxes. Some 12,000 parents, teachers and representatives of school management boards gathered together to protect the children of the nation against a range of insidious cutbacks in the classroom. Only a hasty U-turn by the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Deputy Hanafin, avoided the wrath of the disabled community this week. Next week, it may well be the farmers who will test the mettle of the rudderless coalition Government, whose members must now hang together or hang separately.
Virtually no sector of the community has escaped unscathed from the ill thought out budget and the most vulnerable and least well off seem to have suffered the brunt of the cutbacks, despite all that has been said to the contrary. The ultimate cutback, however, has resulted in unemployment. Workers have lost their jobs and have had their incomes wiped out and careers ruined. In many cases, their families suddenly became impoverished. For the unemployed, it is not a question of a soft or hard landing for the economy, of an international economic downturn or even of the country slipping into recession, as it has; rather, unemployment has been a traumatic, life-shattering experience for each of the nearly 100,000 workers who lost his or her job in the past 12 months. It will be such for another 100,000 who, according to the ESRI report, are to lose their jobs in the next 12 months. The wave of unemployment threatens to engulf spouses, children, friends, neighbours and the entire community. An intricate web of educational, cultural and sports experiences are shattered by unemployment.
The bail-out of the banks and financial institutions with an openended financial guarantee of taxpayers' money is the proud boast of this Government. However, when it comes to bailing out the tens of thousands of people who are becoming unemployed, the Government has no proud boast, creative ideas, sense of urgency or, worst of all, compassion. Spending on social welfare will increase in 2009 in line with the lengthening dole queues. The new unemployed will be allowed to slip into the limbo land of welfare and settle into long-term unemployment or emigration, as happened in previous decades and as recently as the 1980s. The humanity of the unemployed is greatly diminished in such circumstances.
There is no new provision for upskilling and no new range of FÁS courses is being put in place, nor is there any self-employment incentive or creative vision to channel the new unemployed into areas of development, training and education and towards new opportunities. The only action taken in the budget that impacts on the unemployed is a negative one. The budget doubles the length of time needed for the unemployed to qualify for the jobseeker's allowance from one to two years and thus makes it more difficult to access.
This is a Government bereft of ideas which is only intent on its own survival. The politics of self-preservation is the flip side of the politics of boom and greed and leads to lethargy and neglect of the people. At the EU summit of Heads of State held the day after the budget, the dazed Taoiseach and his Minister for Finance appeared not even to have been aware that the other EU states were fighting unemployment and tackling the credit crunch through member state and EU initiatives. For example, the European Investment Bank announced at the summit that it was making €30 billion available for small and medium-sized enterprises through low-interest loans to promote borrowing and through the circulation of money for investment in projects and enterprises, thus maintaining growth and protecting employment.
Small and medium enterprises are the backbone of all economies in terms of employment. It is time this Government came out of its bunker and began to offer leadership, direction and hope to the thousands of people its failed policies have driven into unemployment. If it cannot or is not willing to do so, it should step aside sooner rather than later.
The loss of almost 2,000 jobs a month in little over a year indicates the worst performance by any Irish Government in modern history. During this morning's Order of Business, the Taoiseach, Deputy Brian Cowen, seemed clearly at a loss to understand the appalling crash in the labour market and totally bereft of ideas as to how the Government should respond. That is why I welcome the general thrust of the Fine Gael motion before us, which seeks to build on my party's Private Members' motion on the unemployment crisis, considered a few weeks ago.
Every day in our constituencies, we hear of people being put on short time or being let go. Young workers, in particular, are shocked at the poor levels of support and re-training that are currently available. In my constituency, Dublin North-East, evidence of the recession is clearly visible in the monthly live register figures published by the CSO in respect of Coolock and Kilbarrack employment offices. At the former office, for example, the number of unemployed rose by 35% between October 2007 and September 2008. At Kilbarrack employment office, the number of unemployed soared by over 40% in just over a year. A cursory glance around the country indicates shocking and alarming increases in the rate of unemployment. Nevertheless, in the recent budget, the Taoiseach and Minister for Finance proposed no national or regional initiatives of any kind to address the awful decline into unemployment. Even worse, the Government maliciously attacked the available social welfare supports for the newly unemployed. My colleague mentioned the serious restrictions the Minister for Social Welfare introduced in respect of the jobseeker's benefit, illness benefit and the health and safety benefit. She has doubled qualifying periods and shortened the periods to which the benefits apply to 12 months and nine months. She introduced a miserable €6.50 increase for those in receipt of the jobseeker's allowance over the longer term. The tactic of the Government is to abolish all types of jobseeker and illness benefits.
Clearly, the looming unemployment crisis requires a combination of macro and micro approaches. On the macro side, the Labour Party is the only party so far to outline a credible programme to sustain jobs and refloat the economy. Our strategy for stabilisation and growth was an excellent first attempt to create a national recovery programme. Labour's proposals include restimulation of the construction industry through a school building programme and national insulation scheme, a new affordable housing scheme, active and dynamic labour market programmes, targeted investments in education and high-tech start-ups and a medium-term fiscal framework for the public sector. However, the Taoiseach, allegedly an admirer of Seán Lemass, has failed to grasp the need for strong national economic leadership, as he demonstrated again this morning. The Government, and sometimes our Fine Gael colleagues, at times confuse the needs associated with fiscal and budgetary difficulties with the much greater needs of the economy and society.
Several elements of the motion refer to the need for FÁS to respond more actively to the tightening jobs market. I strongly support the idea of greatly expanding the back-to-education allowance, whereby FÁS and the third-level institutes and seven universities would be required to utilise spare capacity to re-educate and further educate workers who become unemployed in the recession.
At a recent session of the Committee of Public Accounts, at which FÁS's CEO Rody Molloy was responding to criticisms by the Comptroller and Auditor General on the running of the organisation in recent years, I asked Mr. Molloy to put FÁS on red alert to address rising unemployment levels and, in particular, to take action regarding apprentices. Day in, day out, many apprentices lose their sponsors as small companies make cutbacks, yet we have created no programme to address this. The Leas-Chathaoirleach will remember that former Governments of which he was a member, when faced with economic circumstances of the kind we face today, asked the semi-State companies and larger ones, such as Ryanair and Tesco, to employ apprentices actively and have them secure their FETAC qualifications. I ask the present Government to consider this.
My colleagues, Deputies Quinn and Howlin, and other members of the Government in the mid-1980s invented the community employment schemes. Tens of thousands of citizens have participated in the schemes, retrained and obtained their first jobs as a consequence. Some of the conditions for community employment schemes have always been too restrictive. The Government should reconsider this area, particularly as part of a national recovery programme, which it should consider introducing after Christmas.
One key gain from national partnership is the national network of partnership and Leader companies and also the county and city development boards. It is now time to re-energise these bodies and give them a well resourced mandate to promote employment and local enterprise. A first step would be to abolish the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs and merge Pobal and FÁS into a new training, employment and support agency. One of the biggest acts of vandalism by the Minister of that Department, Deputy Ó Cuív, was his abolition of the social economy programme. This was a deliberate, PD, neo-conservative ideological assault on social enterprise. Worldwide experience across Europe and the USA, from the John Lewis Partnership in the United Kingdom with 80,000 workers who own their own company, to the Publix supermarkets in the US with 140,000 workers, indicate that the track record of social and worker-owned enterprise is deeply impressive. Yet the mandarins in Deputy Ó Cuív's Department ignored all this and turned social enterprise into a bureaucratic community hall-minding fiasco. The only solution for that Department is to return the Minister, Deputy Ó Cuív, to his Celtic twilight dreamland and let us get on with providing jobs for real people all across this country.
I commend the motion.
I wish to share my time with Deputies Nolan, White, O'Connor, Byrne and O'Rourke.
As Minister for Social and Family Affairs, I am naturally very concerned about the number of people who are unemployed, those 250,000 individuals who are on the live register today and the impact this experience has on them and on their families. On the one hand, my role is to ensure that we have sufficient finance to support these families, the dependent spouses and children. However, the main aim is to get these people back to work, to be able to support them with education and training and to provide employment opportunities for them. The Government is working well to do this and Ministers work in co-operation with each other. We have constant contact through the Cabinet Committee on Social Inclusion and there is also contact between relevant Ministers to ensure that we can meet the needs of unemployed individuals.
We do this in a number of ways. The people involved are of different ages, backgrounds and nationalities and have different work experiences. We must therefore be able to target and match their experience with the work available and we must see what new responses we can produce. Within my own Department we are working successfully in a couple of defined ways. One is through our co-operation with FÁS and the second is by our activation programme, much of which is concerned with getting people back into education and training.
The link between the Department of Social and Family Affairs and FÁS is absolutely crucial. I have already met with FÁS representatives because I believe there are opportunities to facilitate more people with job interviews and support in order to help them get into training. When people are called for interview by FÁS this leads to success. Between January and August this year more than 40,000 people were referred by the Department of Social and Family Affairs to FÁS for interview. These were people who had already spent three months on the live register. It was a difficult time for them because within that time they had not found full or satisfactory employment. The numbers called in the eight months this year was an increase on the numbers of last year which shows good productivity. Of those called, 50% have left the live register, which is a success story. Some were placed in jobs, some in training, some were interviewed and left the live register and some did not show up for interview but left the live register anyway. There are many lessons to learn from that. By increasing the number of people we contact to come for interview we hope to help support others to leave the live register.
The type of training on offer is critical and that is why FÁS offers modular flexible programmes to help people up-skill. The fact that those programmes are certified means that the people on them are getting a valuable training and education. In recent times FÁS is trying to respond to the needs of the individual. Apprentices have been discussed in this House and there is an issue about apprentices who have not been able to finish their training. However, FÁS is actively working to ensure that the particular needs of this group are being met. When apprentices are properly skilled and trained they will have some hope of returning to the workforce.
FÁS has also adapted the types of new courses it offers. The training centre in Loughlinstown, for example, works very well with computer and high-tech companies in Cherrywood to meet their needs. In this way people find that they are no longer merely responding to the needs of their employers but become very flexible and adaptable. FÁS also offers programmes on the installation of new sustainable technologies and on environmental activity and trains to a very high level and this is the type of activity we wish to see continue.
Those people who were called for interview but were not offered employment and who are back on the live register, will be called again in three months. That is the type of co-operation there is between my Department and FÁS.
The second major programme is the back to education allowance. One of the most positive significant figures issued today by the Central Statistics Office is the 24% increase in the number of people accessing the back to education allowance. I am really pleased about this because it shows that the focus that we put on it in the last few months is proving to be successful. We held a seminar for facilitators all over the country to update them on the range of opportunities available. Our facilitators are working on a local basis, with FÁS, the VEC and other education providers to see what is available for young people, focusing in particular on the 18 to 25 year old age group. This is a way of supporting people by providing the equivalent of the social welfare allowance, the €500 cost of education allowance, in order that they can access the opportunities there for them.
My Department is supporting people with welfare payments, with a budget of €19.6 billion next year and an increase included in that of €1.25 billion extra in order to deal with those who are unemployed. More important, by supporting people through education and training in getting back to work, the Government shows it is serious about supporting those who are unemployed.
We are all too painfully aware of the international downturn and the effect it is having on our economy. That is also reflected in the figures published today in respect of unemployment levels. I am particularly concerned about the large number of male employees who have lost their jobs and continue to do so. I wish the Minister every success in her programme for next year, which probably must continue into the following year. This tries to help the group she identified, the 18 to 25 year age group who have found themselves without jobs.
We must acknowledge the economic challenges that currently face the Government. It is to be welcomed that measures have been taken such as bringing forward the budget by six weeks and increasing the budget for Departments and areas within Departments in order to assist those who have found themselves on the unemployment register.
There will be much focus on the role of FÁS from now on in a way there has not been in the past number of years when we saw significant growth. The agency will find itself the focus of much attention because of the downturn in the economy. Continued provision of a range of training opportunities available to those who lose their jobs in the construction sector is one area that must be tackled. I was pleased to hear the Minister of State, Deputy Billy Kelleher, bring attention to this and include such measures as the offering of a range of specific skills to workers and individual career paths to be developed for redundant workers. In addition, attention must be given to retraining and up-skilling those workers.
There are still many opportunities out there for workers who find themselves unemployed. The provision of retraining opportunites for construction workers in respect of energy efficiency is one area on which I was glad to hear the Minister of State focus. As night follows day we will see an improvement in the world economy and, one hopes, in the Irish economy within the short term. If at that stage we have a re-skilled and up-skilled work force available to take the opportunities this will benefit not only the workers and their families but also the country.
I wish to refer to one area, namely, community enterprise schemes. These have been a great help to individuals who have been on long-term unemployment benefit or assistance and who are doing significant good work in assisting communities, particularly rural communities, in carrying out work which local authorities were not in a position to do. I am glad that the budget for this has been increased and that this work will continue. With rising unemployment levels we should use the opportunity. We should not allow unemployed people walk the streets, particularly young unemployed people. In the 1980s young people who did not emigrate fell into an unhealthy routine of walking the streets, whereas those who took advantage of the education system were in a position to find good employment opportunities when the upturn took place. I encourage the Minister to continue with this approach.
The Government is firmly focused on the challenges facing the economy and society in terms of finding new opportunities for those unfortunate people who have lost their jobs recently and those who may look into the abyss in the next few months. There is no sharper reminder of how the recession is biting than the appalling live register figures published today which show that 11,700 people had to sign on in the past month.
Let us, however, focus on positive developments. Last month's budget shows the resolve of the Government to facilitate opportunities to re-enter the workforce. Additional funding of €11 million was allocated for community employment and job initiative schemes, all of which are of considerable benefit in towns and villages throughout the country; funding for FÁS services for people with disabilities was increased and €208 million was allocated for the national training fund for 2009. These measures will help those seeking to start or continue apprenticeships or take part in other forms of training such as reskilling. This is particularly important, not only for those who seek to return to the workforce but also to address the consequences of economic contraction and restructuring.
This time last year the ESRI, in its economic forecast for the final quarter, stated that "if labour cannot readily flow between sectors, the forecast for unemployment next year might be overly optimistic." This statement has been borne out by trends this year.
One area of employment opportunity which could create a significant employment is that of green collar jobs. There are many opportunities to find enterprise and employment in this new era in which environmental protection is being incorporated into public policy and we face up to the task of addressing climate change and peak oil. Energy efficiency requirements under new building regulations present opportunities for roofers, carpenters, electricians and plumbers. The renewable energy sector is also growing, while agriculture offers opportunities through the diversion of land from food production to energy production or forestry. Countless other opportunities are available, including in the areas of water services investment and waste management.
As the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government recently reminded us, the green technology sector is worth €284 billion worldwide and is now larger than the chemicals or car manufacturing industries in Europe. Deputies should hone in on this fact during the debate as we must grasp the potential of the sector through identification, planning, education and job training. To this end, I am trying to have what is known as a Solitaire school established in Carlow in my constituency. Ireland is the only country in Europe which does not have one of these schools, which provide training for renewable energy installers, whether in installing solar or solar voltaic panels or geothermal heat pumps, and confers European qualifications. A Solitaire school would attract students to courses in the Carlow Institute of Technology and VEC schools in the county. It is important to take an initiative in this regard to ensure we do not lag behind other countries in Europe.
The budgetary increase of 9% in 2009 for county enterprise development is a positive measure. The county enterprise boards play an important role in supporting micro-enterprises at crucial phases and in stimulating economic activity at local level. This increase is complemented by the considerable funding announced this week for LEADER partnerships throughout the country, including in my constituency where the Carlow and Kilkenny LEADER programmes received €8.9 million and €11.5 million, respectively. This funding will go a long way towards developing employment and stimulating economic growth in rural areas, particularly among our 250,000 small businesses.
The months and years ahead will be tough and retraining and restructuring will be vital to our survival. If we put in place the resources and schemes to do this now, we will have a more secure economy and labour force in the medium and long term.
I am pleased to have an opportunity to make a brief contribution to this important and timely debate. While I am sometimes reluctant to discuss my constituency in great detail, I was reminded during the contribution of the previous speaker that Deputies should not be afraid to talk about the area from which they come. My colleagues will be aware that I am from Tallaght. Deputy Leo Varadkar told me earlier that he expected me to refer to Tallaght during this debate. I am not afraid to refer to Tallaght and the wider Dublin South-West area.
I, like every other Deputy, must face the challenge of job creation. Throughout my career, whether as a community worker, councillor on South Dublin County Council and Dublin County Council or Dáil Deputy, I have never been afraid to discuss the positive contribution that can be made to Dublin South-West and the job creation challenges facing the area. Recent figures indicating that 5,303 people are unemployed in Tallaght, of whom 3,710 are males and 1,593 females, highlight the problem facing the area. I was a founder member and chairman of the Get Tallaght Working group in 1984 at a time when we had to focus on job creation needs. I am glad that in the intervening period, particularly since the opening in 1990 of The Square, it has been possible to meet the area's employment needs. Tallaght, the third largest population centre in Ireland, has become a positive, progressive place.
While I sympathise with Deputies who make the case for their respective regions, Tallaght and the surrounding districts in Dublin South-West have a credible case to make. I will continue to approach Ministers on behalf of my constituents. Without wishing to get the Minister of State, Deputy Kelleher, into trouble, he has always been supportive of my work.
What a good boy.
As Deputy O'Rourke is well aware, having done so during her time in office, Fianna Fáil Ministers do their job and respond in a positive manner to humble backbench Deputies.
Deputy O'Connor was never humble.
The Deputy looked after me when I raised issues with her. Nothing has changed and I am pleased the example she showed while in office has been emulated by her successors.
Can I have a bucket, please?
Deputy O'Connor was not humble.
I remain humble. I am pleased the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Deputy Mary Hanafin, came before the House to outline the action she is taking because many of our current problems will land on her desk, as she courageously noted.
I am as critical as other Deputies in my efforts to ensure the various programmes offered to unemployed people are effective. I also bring to my Dáil business my experience of being made redundant three times.
It will happen again.
I could lose my job but I am a democrat. It is important to support those who need employment and assistance. We must continue to ensure the system operates in a sympathetic manner when people need services or assistance, while also ensuring it is not left open to being abused. It is always necessary to tweak the system.
Reference was made to FÁS, which has a first class facility in the Cookstown industrial estate in Tallaght. While it does a superb job, it must do more to assist those who are unemployed and face challenges. As the Minister noted, such people need special help.
We need to take a different approach to community employment schemes, which have evolved considerably over a long period. I was contacted during the week by a person of 45 years of age who was told it would not be possible to extend participation on a community employment scheme until the person reaches 55 years. The new difficulties we have must be given special consideration and I hope common sense will prevail in our approach to these issues. Looking at television all day, Barack Obama reminds us that it is a time to change and evolve and respond to the needs of people. He said something very interesting this morning, which I will continue to bring to all my work. He said, "I will listen to you, especially where we disagree". As far as these policies are concerned, that is important.
I will continue with what Deputy O'Connor said about Barack Obama. Those of us who have been inspired by the civil rights movement in America, Booker T. Washington going to the White House and President Truman desegregating the army are aware that it is a fantastic time for the world when an African-American can become President of the United States. It is a moment of change, as Deputy O'Connor said, but a moment of challenge as well. New challenges are arising, but that problem seems to be solved in America at least at this stage. They have new challenges but the challenge we are facing today, and debating, is unemployment.
I also concur with Deputy Mary O'Rourke because she did the business for us when I was at school. She visited my classroom and gave us a new school, so it starts early.
My God. I thank the Deputy.
It is a mutual admiration society.
The issue we are discussing tonight is very serious. Over the past decade we have seen incredible growth in the economy. In the past 11 years, coinciding with Fianna Fáil being in Government, some 640,000 new jobs were created. However, right now we find ourselves in the middle of an unprecedented global economic crisis. One hears people describing it as possibly the worst since the great depression, or even worse than it. Unfortunately, today, we see an increase in the numbers signing on the live register. My constituency, area and family are not strangers to that phenomenon. It is affecting families across the country. Although the Irish rate is still lower than the EU average, there is no denying that unemployment is on the rise. It poses challenges for us as legislators and for the Government. It is essential that the Government acts quickly, as indeed it has. It is doing what it can to get our unemployment rate down, the economy back in track and people back to work.
Moving the budget forward helped the Government address the problem. If the budget had not taken place when it did, there would still be an enormous degree of uncertainty and speculation over what might or might not happen and that would not be helpful, given the challenges we face. One of the most important steps we need to take is to invest in the skills of our people. We must ensure Irish workers have the skills and training they need. The budget allocated €1 billion to FÁS. The only problem I have with FÁS, which is doing great work, is the emphasis it places on construction skills. My fear is that with the rate of house building we had, which presumably will not happen again, there is a certain cohort of workers who simply will not work in construction any more. This is because we will not be building houses in the numbers we have been over the last few years. These people will need to be reskilled in different areas, if not in totally different sectors, and not just construction. Deputy White mentioned green collar jobs and I agree with her in that regard. However, a certain cohort of such workers will never work again in construction. They will only attain the success they deserve by retraining or reskilling.
Some €208 million will be spent this year on training unemployed people. This means that workers who recently lost their jobs should and can be taught the skills to enable them find work and begin new careers. Under the disability heading, some €78 million is earmarked in the budget towards providing employment and training opportunities and programmes for the disabled. We have to monitor all of these programmes as well to ensure they are doing what they set out to do. I spoke yesterday to the chief executive officer of my local VEC and he mentioned a number of programmes he thought were wasteful. He said they were not achieving the objectives intended for them and were just giving people somewhere to go on a daily basis. That is not what Government funding is about. Whether it is for the unemployed or the disabled, we must ensure that the programmes we have in place do what they were meant to do — improve the opportunities available to the people on those courses.
Every type of business has been hurt by the global credit crunch. The construction industry has been hit particularly hard. FÁS is helping people find new jobs and to reskill. We need people to work in new growing industries. Environmental jobs were mentioned as well. The national skills strategy was released in 2007. The goal was to encourage workers of all ages to continue their education and included the concept of fourth level education as well, which is very important. It is important to continue our commitment to the strategy. We need to ensure workers remain competitive and skilled. Investing in the workforce, as the Government is doing, will help ensure the economy will improve as quickly as possible. Training and education will prepare workers for the future.
Again, I agree with Deputy O'Connor that the work being done by Ministers of State, Deputies Kelleher and McGuinness, and the other Ministers of State under the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Mary Coughlan, is fantastic. They are deeply committed to the economy and workers, as is the entire Fianna Fáil Party, the other Government parties and indeed all the parties around the House.
The Deputy has covered the whole works.
I am glad of the opportunity to speak on the motion and to have received all those delightful compliments from my colleagues.
The Deputy deserves them.
We all agree that unemployment brings misery, sadness and unhappiness to so many families. We know that because we realise that for a long period doing constituency clinic work we were spoiled. People were not concerned about getting a job, but rather how they would progress to the next job opportunity, as they attempted to up-skill. It is a great sadness for such people, their families and children. I can only imagine how people must feel at this time of the year as we draw towards the Christmas if they are unemployed. For that sake alone, I strongly hope that employment will pick up.
There has been much talk about what the Government has not done, but I believe it has done a good deal about unemployment. I heard Deputy Broughan, when I was in my office, talk about the fact that there were so many apprentices whose courses were not completed. FÁS has taken specific measures to deal with redundant apprentices. I have been reading about that and also the Léargas scheme, where a very strong effort is being made to place redundant apprentices in positions where they can continue their training and have job opportunities. Armed with their training and skills certification, they can literally travel the world and get a job, although obviously one would wish they might get a job at home.
I am also very keen on the whole Skillnets programme and I have officiated at the launch of such initiatives around the country. They are wonderful. A very good one is under way at the moment, catering for management and future leader levels. The participants shape the course to suit themselves. They give feedback as regards what they want in the course and how they are getting on and it is a very worthwhile endeavour.
Regarding FÁS, the Tánaiste was right, as was the Minister of State, Deputy Kelleher, when they said that whatever irregularities there were must be attended to and erased. However, some people are reluctant to say a good word about FÁS. I have nothing but the height of praise for it. I worked for two and a half years with Deputy Ruairí Quinn, a great man to have as a boss. He and I worked closely together on that whole FÁS programme. At that time FÁS relinquished the tag of social employment and started the community employment projects. There is not a village in this land that has not been changed and touched by FÁS. It has changed the face of Ireland. People have been trained on it, done such worthwhile community work and gone on to job opportunities. It is actually on-the-job training, which is brilliant, and it has developed so many other skills within the repertoire of what it can offer people. I hope that whatever small cloud hangs over FÁS will not linger and that, unfettered, it will be able to press on with whatever programme of work it has ahead.
I put on record my admiration for an agency that has much to do in this small country — to provide employment chances, advanced and apprentice training, one step up and community employment programmes, etc. The range of courses and facilities on offer is significant and I hope that under the tutelage of the Tánaiste and the Minister of State, Deputy Kelleher, whatever cloud hangs over the agency will soon be lifted.
I would also like to say a good word about the Minister of State, who is here. I have found him approachable and adaptable and, as a Cork woman, the Acting Chairman, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, will know this, too, of course. He is interesting to listen to and keen to meet people, learn what he can from them and help them to go forward in whatever scheme they want to join. I wish I had more time to speak. I hope the measures being put in place for the unemployed will be effective.
I wish to share time with Deputies Paul Kehoe, Joe Carey, Paul Connaughton, Dinny McGinley and Joe McHugh.
Is that agreed? Agreed.
There is so much loving going on here tonight that I should look for a bucket. Following on the figures released today, this debate has much more relevance. The figures show the situation is very serious. In the past month alone, following seasonal adjustment, the figures have increased by over 15,000. That is a substantial jump in one month. The unemployment figure now is at a seriously high 260,000 and this calls into question the unemployment figure mentioned in the budget for next year. That figure is way off.
We have big problems and must face them. I am afraid we will be back here next year facing a possible 10% or 12% unemployment rate, or even higher if we are unlucky. We must get serious about the problem.
There is a lack of realism in the House, especially on the Government benches, about the seriousness of the situation. We accept that jobs were created over the past ten years. The Minister of State will recall that I complained last week about the Minister's speech and about the praise he lavished on the work done over the years. I agree work was done, but that is over and we must now deal with the current position and consider how we can get through the difficulties we face. We cannot just keep talking about all the jobs created in the past.
The Minister of State stated:
The Government has attached the highest priority to assisting these people. We will continue to direct the necessary resources to the employment and training support services, which will provide a helping hand and assist these people in securing other employment as soon as possible.
What is the difference between that and previous statements? I see no new focus in this, and nor is there any new focus demonstrated in anything that was said last night or tonight.
The Minister of State also stated:
The Government has already taken decisive action to respond to the challenges we are now facing. We have shown leadership and sent out a strong message that Ireland is responding to the global economic crisis in a proactive and prudent manner.
I must have missed something, because I have been around here for the past couple of months but have not seen this happen. Nor has anyone else. We cannot create an illusion around ourselves. We must realise that things must change and that we must do things differently. It is useless to just talk about changes and to claim we have reacted. We have not reacted and no change has been made. If we had reacted, unemployment would be decreasing rather than increasing.
The Government's amendment to the motion suggests the Government has taken early action to address the deterioration in economic and fiscal prospects by introducing the 2009 budget early. It has not done this. Instead, it has brought total confusion and disarray, it lacks confidence and has failed to bring stability to the situation. We all thought bringing forward the budget was a good idea because it would bring stability and let people know what was going to happen over the next year. However, that has not happened. The budget is dead. It has fallen apart at the seams and there is a view we will have to wait until April or May for the next budget to address the problems. That is the reality. Those people with money who might be in a position to create jobs will hold back, as will people who want to buy houses, because they do not know what will come next. The Government has failed to bring stability and confidence to the situation and this will have serious consequences for employment in the months ahead.
The Government amendment states the Dáil supports the Government in stabilising the financial services sector so that Irish enterprises, small, medium and large, have improved access to funds. The Government praises itself for this, but this has not happened. The Minister of State said last night that he was concerned the banks might target the productive areas of the economy. He is right about that. It is clear he did not write the Government amendment because he is right and should be concerned. Banks are not making money available to small businesses, or any businesses and this is a reason jobs are being lost. Companies and small and medium businesses in all areas that we thought were secure and would last forever are now losing jobs. Each day we hear stories such as that 70 jobs are going in one area and another, ten will go the following week and the business will be gone in six months. Daily, we get telephone calls from businesses that cannot get money to keep them in business.
Banks write to businesses now to warn them their overdraft is, for example, €25,000. They warn that the following week this will be cut to €12,500 and a month later it will be withdrawn. This is no way to treat businesses. How can they cope with this situation? The Government has a duty to work with the Financial Regulator and the banks to address the situation, particularly in view of the fact that so much has been done for the banks in terms of the guarantee. I understand the guarantee was given to protect the economy, but the banks have been helped by it. We should have a quid pro quo and get something back from the banks.
The Government amendment mentions the county and city enterprise boards and the work done in that area. The Minister of State, Deputy John McGuinness, spoke about an extra €3 million, which only amounts to approximately €100,000 per county. The enterprise boards do excellent work and should be better funded. The majority of them have been cash strapped since the middle of this year. Therefore, providing them with an extra few euro for next year will not make a significant impact. We will have already lost six months by then.
I urge the Minister of State, Deputy Kelleher, to take another look at this and find more money for enterprise boards, because they create jobs. Significant numbers of applications have been submitted to the boards by people who want to start businesses. They cannot get money from the banks so must get it some place else. If the Government cannot convince the banks to make the money available, it must bring in its own scheme for funding loans for small and new businesses. I acknowledge the Government mentioned providing tax deferral to new companies, but it should also consider tax deferrals for existing businesses in order to save jobs because these businesses are under pressure. Despite the pressure under which businesses operate, the Minister brought forward the date for paying tax, sucking cash out of the system rather than pumping it back in to give the businesses the opportunity to survive.
The Minister of State, Deputy McGuinness, patted himself on the back yesterday for having segregated Enterprise Ireland and enterprise boards, thereby doing away with the confusion that existed about them. There is confusion. The members of the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment spent the summer visiting enterprise boards and chambers of commerce in the greater Dublin area and learned there is confusion about which companies belong to the various areas. I am aware Deputy Kelleher and Deputy McGuinness have a big interest in this area, but they must get real about the situation and the confusion and try and deal with it. The rules relating to the enterprise boards must be changed. Currently the rules are too tight with regard to whom the boards can give assistance and grants. Circumstances are different now and we must make changes to go forward.
The Government has suggested that FÁS will receive extra money for training, etc. I welcome this because the Fine Gael motion is concerned with providing money for training so as to provide opportunities for people. It is intended that €9 million will be made available to help apprentices to secure the job experience they need to complete their training. However, nothing is said about how this will be done. FÁS set up a working group in April 2007 to sort out the apprentice problem, but despite being repeatedly asked to explain what is to be done, it has not come up with a solution. Last night again, the Minister of State mentioned the problem would be dealt with, but no plan has been put forward for doing this. What is the plan and can we see it and help with it? I have said previously that this side of the House is willing to work with ideas, not block them or cause confusion, but if we are not provided with information, we cannot do that.
Many of those who made speeches last night spoke about what the Government intends to do and the language used gave no guarantees or targets. I am unhappy with that kind of approach. The Government approach should be to say what it will do and should set and meet targets if it is to spend extra money in the training and employment area.
My hobby horse is the need for new labour or skills activation schemes. We accept the CE schemes do a great job for some sectors. They do excellent work, but we should try to tweak these schemes and improve the work they do. However, many people who have lost their jobs in the past year do not qualify for any of the existing schemes. They are highly skilled and we must find a way to match them with jobs through some kind of labour activation scheme. This must be possible and we must consider how it can be done. This suggestion was made in a speech, but no definite proposal was made. Fine Gael has suggested this repeatedly but has not been given any satisfaction.
How difficult is it to match skilled people with jobs? Deputy Enright mentioned last night that the cost to the State of an unemployed person is approximately €350 a week, if not €400. Surely, we should be able to find some useful work for that person that would give them a little extra to add to that €350, sufficient to encourage them to do that work. All of society would gain from this. This is what we must do. We must use our imagination, talk the ideas through and see if we can come up with a better solution.
Many speakers last night spoke about the significant number of people under the age of 25 who are out of work. We must direct some schemes at this problem. I urge the Minister of State to look at the New Deal scheme that operates in Britain, which works well. It is a focused scheme and is directed specifically at this age group. It gets them into a job by providing a grant or subsidy to employers to take them on. We must do something similar. We need a specific scheme for the under 25 group and specific labour activation schemes for other categories. We must have four or five schemes that will match people and their skills with jobs. We must get people working. It is not good for people used to working to be left sitting at home. We have a duty to get them back into employment.
I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion and thank Deputy Varadkar for proposing it. Even though this issue is becoming increasingly important, the most obvious feature of the Government's response is a lack of imagination. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is working to the same plans it devised ten years ago. It has no sense of urgency in regard to what is happening. Like others in the Department, the Minister of State, Deputy Kelleher, is not being realistic about the current economic climate. Imaginative ideas are badly needed to support younger members of the workforce.
Over the past several years my home county of Wexford has relied heavily on the construction industry. I do not doubt that other counties had a similar relationship of dependence but County Wexford has lacked the advantage of having a senior Minister who would encourage investment and industrial development in the county. I have regularly warned this House about our dependence on the construction industry. Small business people in Wexford have worked hard to achieve their current positions in life. The soft furnishing and engineering companies which employ 100 or 200 people did not receive a penny from the Government, the IDA or Enterprise Ireland. These companies are now feeling the pinch. Deputy English rightly criticised the failure of banks to offer credit to small companies. Over the past year, credit availability has tightened significantly with the result that companies are forced to close.
Young people who are in the middle of their apprenticeships with carpentry, electrical and plumbing companies are being let go. What is to happen to these people? I have contacted FÁS, the Minister and the Minister of State on a number of occasions to raise this issue only to be told that nothing can be done. That is a further example of the Government's false commitment to young people.
Ireland was the first of the eurozone countries to enter recession and unemployment is rising more quickly here than any other country. We are witnessing the worst slide in the public finances of any eurozone country since the beginning of Economic and Monetary Union. The boom and bust pattern designed by this and previous Governments has severely damaged Ireland's economic resilience and its ability to recover from downturns, yet we are forced to listen to the mantras about the worldwide situation which are trotted out by Government Members. At least we no longer have to listen to last summer's catch phrase, "The fundamentals of the economy are sound".
This motion was tabled in an effort to force the Government to come to grips with the specific problems that have arisen in the area of training. Our economy is suffering in this recession because of its slide in competitiveness. In coming years, labour productivity and ability will be the key determinants of renewed economic growth in Ireland and increasing productivity will depend to a large extent on education and training. A better educated and trained workforce will produce higher value goods and services and will be more likely to innovate. The equation is: training equals productivity equals competitiveness equals recovery.
FÁS was established in January 1988 under the Labour Services Act 1987. The board of the agency, which is appointed by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, comprises employer and trade union representatives. After 20 years is it not time to look at both the composition of the board and the functions it performs in regard to training? Like any organisation in existence for 20 years, FÁS is in need of refreshing, restructuring and refocusing. At the very least, we have to establish whether we are getting value for money from the agency. The assertion by its CEO at a recent meeting of the Committee on Public Accounts that its services can only succeed if they are promoted and marketed effectively and that it is right that it has a substantial spend in this area misses the point and shifts the emphasis in priorities. As far as I am concerned, the role and manner in which it carries out its work in these economic times requires little or no marketing or advertising. During recessionary periods, individuals and businesses do not invest in the optimal levels of education and training. The Minister for Finance could introduce an employer's tax credit to encourage investment in this area.
My constituency of Clare has experienced a 47.6% increase in unemployment over the past 12 months. Unemployment figures have soared from 4,074 to 6,014 this year, which equates to the loss of five jobs every day of the last year. One of the most frightening trends in the published statistics is the increase in the under 25 year old category as a percentage of the overall total. The rate of unemployment among younger people is increasing. This, if nothing else, should demonstrate to the Government the importance of acting on this Fine Gael Private Members' motion. Training must be at the centre of any economic recovery plan
This is a very important motion. However, Government Members do not appear to understand the groundswell that is occurring under their noses. This morning, 252,000 people were on the live register, 100,000 of whom were working last year and did not expect to be made unemployed. What is worse, however, is that the Government has no idea of how to address the crisis before the next 100,000 become unemployed. It is certainly not coming up with suggestions.
The Government claims that it brought the budget forward in order to clearly demonstrate the principles on which a recovery would be based. In my 30 years in this House, however, I have never seen a more disruptive budget. It answered nothing and as every day passes different sectional interests pressure the Government into changing its mind. Far from creating even a single job, the budget will result in further unemployment. This is one of the misfortunes we are facing.
Why is Fine Gael calling on the Government to adjust the budget?
I have been in this House longer than most and I never saw more back tracking after a budget in my life. All they are doing is apologising every day they are in the Dáil.
There is the difference in the world between a pay-packet of €400 or €500 per week that is coming in through a job and the €200 that is received in social welfare payments. They are a world apart. There is no choice in social welfare, one is condemned to the lowest possible standard of living. In fairness to the Minister of State, I have no reason to believe other than that Deputy Kelleher is doing his best. The Government must get it into its head that there are people, now in their teeming thousands, who genuinely want to work. As Deputy English stated, even a small top-up on that social welfare benefit would bring back their dignity and allow them to do useful work in the community. Why is the Government not doing this? The Government sat through the best of times yet it almost closed down community employment schemes. When people had four, five or six years done they were air-brushed out of the system. Why does the Government not examine this? Regarding those of 45 years of age, there should be no one in FÁS or the Government saying that because someone spent so much time in a training programme the person is no longer eligible.
It is timely and appropriate that we are discussing this matter in the Dáil on a day when the CSO published its unemployment report and we have broken through the psychological glass ceiling with unemployment at 252,000. As Deputy Connaughton said, 100,000 people have been made unemployed since the last election when the current Government took over with the answer to everything. As far as unemployment is concerned, the Government has the answer to nothing.
I remember a predecessor of the Minister of State in Cork, a famous politician and leader of the Fianna Fáil party, Jack Lynch, said on radio one afternoon that any Government presiding over unemployment of 100,000 or more should not be in office. It is now two and a half times that.
In Donegal, between September 2007 and September 2008 unemployment rose from 8,370 to 12,550 according to figures supplied by the CSO. This represents an unbelievable increase of 50%. Our industrial base has been eroded in Donegal these last ten years. We have lost 12,000 industrial jobs. There is a sad litany of job losses: Fruit of the Loom, which straddles the constituencies of both Deputy McHugh and I, Hospira in Donegal town, Parian China, BMR and UNIFY in Letterkenny, Dianorm, RMT, Europlast, Herdsman's in the Finn Valley and Nena Models. The list is endless. What will we do to address these major job losses? Deputy O'Rourke is not in the Chamber now.
Very often, when we speak of job losses we say they are statistics but behind every job loss there is a sad story. The person might be the only bread winner in the family, a widow or someone supporting an extended family. The pain, loss of self-esteem and what accompanies the loss of a job is unspeakable sadness. That is the tragic human story behind the loss of every job. In the last year in Donegal there were 4,000 jobs lost.
I implore the Minister to ensure roads and broadband infrastructure are upgraded. I was disappointed to hear that the roll-out of broadband is postponed from 2008 to 2009 to 2010. I was almost devastated when the capital budget for Údarás na Gaeltachta, one of the major job creating agencies in Donegal, was slashed. This will have severe implications for jobs in the area I represent. Something must be done for small industries, such as garages and other service providers, who are at their wits' end. There is a shortage of capital and they are at the point of going under. Unless something is done or there is a positive response from the Government we will have many more such job losses in the coming months. Today we see the figure of 252,000 and shortly after Christmas and the new year that could increase to 300,000 or more. We are about to go over the precipice.
There is so much more we could say. The situation is critical in Donegal, with twice the national level of unemployment. The Tánaiste is in the US this week and I hope she has something for the Irish economy when she comes back, particularly for Donegal and most particularly for her constituency of Donegal South-West.
I congratulate Deputy Varadkar for moving this motion, which is proactive, offers suggestions and an alternative. It is nothing new because in our time in opposition we have offered alternatives but have not been heeded. At the micro level I wish to ask a question of the Minister of State, Deputy Kelleher. What would Deputy Kelleher say if I told him that a gentleman I know can start 100 people working?
Deputy McHugh should send him to Cork.
They could be in Cork. This is a suggestion I put forward 12 months ago and I want the Minister of State to take it seriously. A gentleman can start 100 jobs in the area of the oil industry, involved in dredging, tug boats, dredgers, self-propelled dump barges, geographical survey vessels, oceanographic survey vessels and cargo vessels, which take 60% of world trade. There are unemployed fishermen who lost jobs through the EU decommissioning scheme. They are sitting in their homes but they are the deckhands, the engineers and first mates, the real workers on those boats, not the owners, who lost out on the decommissioning scheme. We must consider a six-week training course, in either Greencastle or in County Cork, the county of the Minister of State, which would give them a licence to skipper these vessels. I will not speak to the Minister of State in a patronising way or use this as a political opportunity. The idea has been with the Government for the past 12 months, passed from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, to BIM and to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. The Minister of State as a Corkman, and I as a Donegal man, can provide jobs in the aquaculture sector and get fishermen back to work. I ask for the indulgence of the Minister of State.
At the macro level, if one listens to the people as a politician, for a period of six years people were saying three things. They were saying that there is no way free money can be given away in the form of 110% mortgages. They also said the boom would come to an end, that it could not last. They said that there would be an end to the construction cycle for six to ten years but nobody listened to the person on the ground. Now, going to branch meetings around my rural constituency, people are asking one question, which is known to those on this side of the House, namely, where all the money went. Not every property developer has gone bust. Money has been taken out of this State and invested elsewhere. We must track it down because the people with the burden in respect of this disaster are those with mortgages. Joe Public is carrying the can for this. Deputy English referred to getting the economy back on track and getting it going. In order to do so we must challenge the banks, which are giving deposit interest rates of 7%, trying to take money out of the economy. Last week alone I heard of three people who tried to secure a car loan but the banks would not give them a loan. That is the problem people are encountering. We cannot bail out the banks without putting some responsibility on their shoulders to try to get the economy going again. It is not happening. That is the responsibility of the Members on the opposite side of the House. We will support them with suggestions, as Deputy Varadkar is doing tonight. We also have a responsibility in this regard. I ask the Minister of State's indulgence on this matter.
The Government has repeatedly proven its ability to manage the Irish economy, irrespective of the circumstances of the day. Since we came to power in 1997 we have guided the State through one of the most remarkable transformations that has ever occurred in any modern economy. We have created record levels of employment — an additional 640,000 jobs in the past decade. We have significantly improved the standard of living for all our citizens. We have invested in our future by investing historically high levels in our infrastructure, our education and training systems and the continued development of our workforce. Over the past 11 years the Government has taken the necessary steps that will ensure Ireland continues to succeed in the future. However, I acknowledge that Ireland like almost every other country is in the midst of an especially difficult time. We are feeling the effects of the global economic storm that is currently impacting on practically every major economy.
Earlier today the live register figures for October were published, which showed that more than 250,000 people were now on the live register. This is very disappointing and heartbreaking for all those involved but is a sign of the difficult times we are experiencing as illustrated by the slowdown in the global and national economy.
The Government is committed to addressing the significant problem of rising unemployment. Over the course of this evening and yesterday we heard the efforts currently being made by the Departments of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Social and Family Affairs, FÁS and other bodies to deliver the required support services to assist those who are unemployed. Last month in budget 2009 the Government announced an additional allocation of €9.5 million to assist FÁS in responding to the increasing numbers of unemployed.
We have initiated specific actions to respond to the large number of people who have lost their jobs in the construction sector, including redundant apprentices. I am particularly conscious of the large cohort of people under 25 years of age who have lost their jobs in the construction sector. Many of these people would have been in the apprenticeship system and that is why the Government is taking the necessary measures to ensure as many of these redundant apprentices are given the opportunity to complete their apprenticeship, which will assist them in securing employment.
I can assure this House that the Government will continue to make strenuous efforts in seeking out job opportunities and up-skilling our unemployed to assist them in benefiting from the creation of new and forthcoming job opportunities.
Apart from the role of the back to education initiative and VTOS, I would like to speak about skills. As Minister of State with responsibility for lifelong learning, I am strongly of the view that investment in the continued development of the skills and competencies of our workforce will provide us with the competitive advantage we require to continue to succeed in the future.
Our national skills strategy provides us with the roadmap for developing this advantage and making Ireland one of the most competitive knowledge based economies in the world. The implementation of the ambitious vision contained in the strategy, namely the up-skilling of an additional half a million people by at least one level on the national framework of qualifications by 2020, will be challenging. However, as the Minister of State who has responsibility for achieving this challenge, I am determined that we succeed.
I wish to reiterate that the Government has repeatedly proven itself capable of taking the necessary steps to safeguard Ireland's economy. Our actions in recent weeks testify to our willingness to make tough decisions and to act in the national interest.
In response to the current difficulties, we have increased the measures of support available from the State to support those who have become unemployed. We will continue to provide the unemployed with up-skilling opportunities and the continued support of a range of other schemes such as community employment schemes, the back to education allowance and the vocational training opportunities scheme to assist these people secure new employment as quickly as possible.
The Government will continue to manage the Irish economy in a manner that is sensible, responsible and appropriate to sustain our quality of life and our recent economic success in the coming years.
I am delighted to speak on this important and timely motion tabled by our spokesman on enterprise, trade and employment, Deputy Varadkar.
I wish to make one reference to the budget. When someone makes a mistake, he or she should stop digging. This budget is so flawed that at this stage the Government should throw it out and introduce a budget in the normal timeframe, which is early December. There is a reason for that. At that stage the Government has the facts in terms of the tax intake.
People will know the ROS system for filing tax returns and the majority of people use it. They will not file their returns until 17 November. People do not know the figures before then. When dealing with a budget and the current financial situation, it is extremely important to deal in facts. In the last budget for the current period, the Government projected a 3% increase in taxes. However, there will be a 10% decrease in taxes. The Government is projecting a 1% increase in taxes for 2009, but I do not believe that is correct, nor does anyone else. How can the Government expect people to have faith in a budget when the assumptions and everything else on which it is based are completely flawed? It fails in myriad areas.
What should a budget do? It should take account of the situation at hand. It should bring in policies that ensure the vulnerable are looked after, which the Government did not do. That has been demonstrated by the recent protests. A budget should ensure that we restore competitiveness, which the budget has not done. If anything, it has reduced it. Effectively, it will add 1.5% to the rate of inflation. It has done nothing in terms of freezing Government charges. From a regional perspective of where I live in Limerick, the Government has imposed a €10 air travel tax deliberately on people taking flights from Shannon, which will penalise the region. These measures depress consumer confidence. Even simple measures apart from those in the budget should have been taken to improve competitiveness. The price of diesel is 20% more than it should be relative to our EU partners, the price of petrol is 11% more and the price of heating oil is 13% more. Why is this the case? What is the Government doing about this? It is sitting on its hands. These are extremely important issues.
On the issue of providing greater support for business, to which Members have referred, one of the key factors affecting businesses is that people cannot get access to capital from the banks. Any measure that is considered in terms of the banks must ensure that funding is made available to the people on the ground. Overdraft facilities are been withdrawn on a daily basis from small businesses.
Utility costs are another factor. The ESB and Bord Gáis have today sought a 6% and 4% price increase, respectively. The Government should ensure that does not happen. Businesses cannot survive if they are not competitive.
In the seven years up to 2007, our competitiveness relative to our trading partners fell by 35%. Our exports fell by 6% and the number of people employed in manufacturing fell by 27,000, a decrease of 9%. This budget does not deal with what a budget should deal with. It is a scattergun, "Yes Minister" budget. The Civil Service and public service are there to implement Government policy. This is a shambolic attempt at a budget; the Government should withdraw it and introduce a proper budget.
I wish to deal specifically with investment in education and training. There is nothing in the budget that deals with this issue in a practical manner. Some 250,000 people are on the live register this evening, of whom 70% are males and there is an 82% increase in the number of males under the age of 25. We proposed in our pre-budget document Recovery through Reform an allocation of €25 million to deal with retaining in the construction sector and proposed that €70 million be allocated to the back to education allowance initiative whereby people would not have to be in receipt of the jobseeker's allowance for more than a year. They could go back to education and deal with the situation we have been dealt.
I wish to deal with my area of Limerick. Some 9,000 people were on the live register up to the end of September. We will not get the regional figures for the number unemployed until Friday. I do not know why it has changed. Previously we got them on the same day as the overall figures but now we need to wait another two days. I spoke about this matter in the House last night, as the Minister of State, Deputy Kelleher, is aware. There is a 50% increase with an additional 3,000 people joining the live register in the past year. I asked for a task force to be set up to deal with the employment and retraining of people in Limerick. Some 450 people have been let go from Dell in the past week, with a further 100 people let go from Flextronics and 65 from Banta. I hope the Minister of State will take that on board.
During my contribution yesterday I noted that Ireland was losing one job every ten minutes. I now need to correct that statement because given today's figures, Ireland is losing a job every three minutes and I include in that Saturdays, Sundays, the evening time and holidays. That is an extraordinary statistic. During the time this debate has taken, 65 people have been made unemployed. Today the seasonally adjusted figure for the live register is 260,000, which is much worse than I thought it would be and I am accused of being a prophet of doom. At 6.7% we are getting very close to the EU average and I believe it is now a certainty that by Christmas we will overtake the EU average in terms of unemployment. Already 16 out of the 27 EU countries have lower unemployment than we do. It is certain that we will be ahead of the EU average quite soon. I believe it is a certainty that we will overtake France, Italy and Germany in the next six months. Those are countries we once considered to be high-unemployment countries.
While international factors certainly affect this downturn, all those countries are also on planet earth and are affected by the same international criteria. In the United States unemployment is at a five-year high, but in Ireland it is at a ten-year high. In Germany unemployment is at a 16-year low, but in Ireland it is at a ten-year high. There can be no question about the depths to which we have sunk compared with other countries, big and small, open and closed economies alike.
I see a certain parallel in the Government's attitude to the recession, which initially was described by the then Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Martin, as a welcome correction. It then became a downturn and eventually a slowdown. After many months of denial the ERSI pretty much forced the Government to abandon its denial and accept there is a recession. Then of course we had panic. The same has occurred with the public finances. We were told that it was not that bad, the fundamentals of the economy were sound, we had a very low national debt and, as we were not borrowing that much it was acceptable to borrow money for capital resources, etc. Then suddenly the Government had to accept the real problem and now, according to the Taoiseach, it is the worst situation for 100 years, which again is panic. That is a total exaggeration. It is not the worst situation for 100 years. It is probably the worst situation for 25 years but not 100 years.
I see the same kind of attitude of denial from Government. While unemployment is increasing in all sectors the Government claims it is not that bad and that it was much higher 11 or 12 years ago when the country was a very different place. I expect that unemployment levels will hit 300,000 by approximately February or March and perhaps 350,000 by the end of next year. Then, of course, a year too late, there will be panic and the Government will propose solutions that will not work at that stage. That has been its approach to economic and social policy for many years.
The Government has made a bad situation worse. The national wage agreement cannot now be afforded and I do not believe it will be paid. Again there will be a panicked response in a few months' time when the Government will suddenly announce it will not pay it after all, having pretended it would pay it for several months. That will have a knock-on effect on the cost of labour in the private sector which will also be asked to meet these increases even though it cannot do so.
The Government has mistakenly decided to cut back the apprenticeship system even though this is one thing FÁS does well. There is a failure to reform FÁS. I accept that FÁS does some good work. Any organisation that spends €1 billion must do some good work. I make no criticism of people who participate in FÁS schemes. However, I criticise the way that FÁS is managed. I am not ashamed to make that criticism despite the fact that some of the Members opposite seem to go out of their way to defend FÁS and the vested interests that protect it. This is an organisation that is subject to a Committee of Public Accounts inquiry, a Comptroller and Auditor General inquiry and a Garda fraud investigation. We should not be ashamed, afraid or embarrassed to say there is something seriously wrong with that organisation.
It is not the organisation. It is individuals in it.
They are individuals in very senior management positions in that organisation who have done wrong and others who have done nothing about the fact that they have done wrong. While I did not hear all of Deputy O'Rourke's speech, I heard part of it. The Minister of State will be aware of matters that are not yet in the public domain just as I am aware of such matters. Perhaps before he allows his party colleagues to make fools of themselves he should take them aside and tell them a bit more about what is going on in that organisation and what kind of investigation is now under way. It needs to be dealt with and I hope the Minister of State deals with it. He is one of the brighter and better Ministers and the issue falls into his area. I hope he will deal with it because if he does not, when this party is in government we will do so and we will have no difficulty in pointing the finger at those who did not act when they should have.
The Government has not acted regarding the burden of regulation. We have a verbal commitment to reduce the cost of red tape by 25% and yet have no interim figures as to what will be done this year, next year or the year after. The cutbacks in infrastructural spending will put Ireland further behind. In the past our economy was based on Ireland being a bridge between the United States and Europe. In the future we will need to try to remodel Ireland to be a bridge between Europe and Asia and to try to attract the kind of investment that is now going into places like Austria, for some reason, and not into Ireland. Despite this we have cut back the broadband infrastructure budget by 25%. South Korea has already got broadband speeds that are 33 times faster than ours. We cannot afford to fall further behind in such areas.
The reality is that we cannot borrow, spend or cut our way out of recession. We can only trade our way out in the medium term. By further damaging our competitiveness and infrastructure the Government will make that much harder.
The Government has also increased VAT, which again is a big mistake that will have a serious impact on business in the new year. It is allowing the cost of business to rise in terms of rates, development levies and the cost of utilities. Those costs should all be frozen now. It is increasing capital gains tax which will again make things more difficult. There is the ongoing failure to recapitalise the banks, which needs to be done. We supported the bank guarantee because it was the right thing to do. However, we now need to take the next step and ensure that the banks are recapitalised and that the wheels of credit and the banking system work again. There is no way we can get out of this mess without fixing the banking system. There will be significant job losses in the coming weeks and months if we do not fix it.
Our motion proposes a number of very good ideas. It is unfortunate that they are not going to be accepted. We focused heavily on retraining and, as Deputy English mentioned, particularly identifying this new cohort of people who would not fit into a CE or JI scheme. They are people who have never been unemployed and have been working for two to three years and paying taxes. They now find themselves unemployed for the first time. They could do work if there were an appropriate public works scheme in which they could participate.
There are many things the Government could do to make the environment good for job creation again, which is important. Businesses will not take on new employees if the environment for doing so is not good. The key things that can be done are to freeze the Government charges we mentioned, bring down those utility costs, invest in infrastructure — broadband in particular — cut back the red tape, reverse the VAT hike, address the realities of the pay deal being unaffordable at this stage and also consolidate labour law.
There is a huge body of labour law and it is very complicated. I understand why NERA must exist and its job is to enforce the law. However, some laws are archaic and are costing jobs. I mentioned yesterday some of the issues concerning the requirement for double pay on Sundays and the JLCs in that sector. They are costing jobs already and will cost more jobs. It behoves the Minister of State to act appropriately in that area.
All is not lost. There is hope for Ireland. We can still bring unemployment down. We can still have good public services and we can still balance our budget, but only if the right policies are adopted. However, it does not appear that the Government is prepared to do that. Instead of just prosecuting the Government our motion proposes a series of ideas which it may well end up adopting in due course. It is a shame it will not do it now and will continue to deny there is a problem and will be panicked into action in a few months' time. I commend the motion to the House.
Amendment put.
The Dáil divided: Tá, 73; Níl, 66.
Tá
- Ahern, Dermot.
- Ahern, Michael.
- Ahern, Noel.
- Andrews, Barry.
- Andrews, Chris.
- Ardagh, Seán.
- Aylward, Bobby.
- Behan, Joe.
- Brady, Áine.
- Brady, Cyprian.
- Brady, Johnny.
- Byrne, Thomas.
- Calleary, Dara.
- Carey, Pat.
- Collins, Niall.
- Conlon, Margaret.
- Connick, Seán.
- Cregan, John.
- Cuffe, Ciarán.
- Curran, John.
- Dempsey, Noel.
- Dooley, Timmy.
- Fahey, Frank.
- Finneran, Michael.
- Fitzpatrick, Michael.
- Fleming, Seán.
- Flynn, Beverley.
- Gogarty, Paul.
- Gormley, John.
- Grealish, Noel.
- Hanafin, Mary.
- Harney, Mary.
- Haughey, Seán.
- Healy-Rae, Jackie.
- Hoctor, Máire.
- Kelleher, Billy.
- Kelly, Peter.
- Kenneally, Brendan.
- Kennedy, Michael.
- Killeen, Tony.
- Kirk, Seamus.
- Kitt, Michael P.
- Kitt, Tom.
- Lenihan, Brian.
- Lenihan, Conor.
- Lowry, Michael.
- McDaid, James.
- McEllistrim, Thomas.
- McGrath, Michael.
- McGuinness, John.
- Martin, Micheál.
- Moloney, John.
- Moynihan, Michael.
- Mulcahy, Michael.
- Nolan, M. J.
- Ó Cuív, Éamon.
- Ó Fearghaíl, Seán.
- O’Brien, Darragh.
- O’Connor, Charlie.
- O’Dea, Willie.
- O’Flynn, Noel.
- O’Keeffe, Edward.
- O’Rourke, Mary.
- Power, Seán.
- Roche, Dick.
- Ryan, Eamon.
- Sargent, Trevor.
- Scanlon, Eamon.
- Smith, Brendan.
- Treacy, Noel.
- Wallace, Mary.
- White, Mary Alexandra.
- Woods, Michael.
Níl
- Allen, Bernard.
- Bannon, James.
- Barrett, Seán.
- Broughan, Thomas P.
- Bruton, Richard.
- Burke, Ulick.
- Byrne, Catherine.
- Carey, Joe.
- Clune, Deirdre.
- Connaughton, Paul.
- Coonan, Noel J.
- Costello, Joe.
- Coveney, Simon.
- Crawford, Seymour.
- Creed, Michael.
- D’Arcy, Michael.
- Deasy, John.
- Deenihan, Jimmy.
- Doyle, Andrew.
- Durkan, Bernard J.
- English, Damien.
- Enright, Olwyn.
- Feighan, Frank.
- Ferris, Martin.
- Flanagan, Charles.
- Flanagan, Terence.
- Gilmore, Eamon.
- Hayes, Tom.
- Higgins, Michael D.
- Hogan, Phil.
- Howlin, Brendan.
- Kehoe, Paul.
- Kenny, Enda.
- Lynch, Ciarán.
- Lynch, Kathleen.
- McCormack, Pádraic.
- McEntee, Shane.
- McGinley, Dinny.
- McGrath, Finian.
- McHugh, Joe.
- McManus, Liz.
- Mitchell, Olivia.
- Morgan, Arthur.
- Naughten, Denis.
- Noonan, Michael.
- Ó Caoláin, Caoimhghín.
- Ó Snodaigh, Aengus.
- O’Donnell, Kieran.
- O’Dowd, Fergus.
- O’Keeffe, Jim.
- O’Mahony, John.
- O’Sullivan, Jan.
- Perry, John.
- Rabbitte, Pat.
- Ring, Michael.
- Shatter, Alan.
- Sheahan, Tom.
- Sheehan, P. J.
- Sherlock, Seán.
- Shortall, Róisín.
- Stagg, Emmet.
- Stanton, David.
- Timmins, Billy.
- Tuffy, Joanna.
- Upton, Mary.
- Varadkar, Leo.
Tellers: Tá, Deputies Pat Carey and John Cregan; Níl, Deputies Paul Kehoe and Emmet Stagg.
Amendment declared carried.
Motion, as amended, put and declared carried.