Thank you, Chairman. I also thank members of the committee for their comments. As always, when I appear before this committee I receive a large volume of questions. We do not build advance factories anymore. Those of us who have been in the House for a long time will remember when we were critical of taxpayers' money being tied up in such buildings. To a large extent, the private sector can now supply the need in this area with the BES-related benefits. Under the provisions of the Finance Acts we are restricted to eight or nine business expansion schemes per year. IDA Ireland gets six, while Shannon Development and Údarás na Gaeltachta share the remainder. The issue always concerns the most effective way to support advance factories of this kind, or advance buildings because they are not all factories. Some of them are for office or other commercial uses. They have been very successful around the country.
There are other issues. If the private sector supplies a facility of this kind, IDA Ireland may decide to subsidise the rent for a limited period until such time as a taker is found for the facility. However, that can only be done on a limited basis. Deputies are correct in saying that where one has a facility one tends to get a taker. The market is very buoyant. We are getting about 65 new foreign investment projects per year, in addition to the expansion of existing activities. Areas with such facilities or buildings certainly have a head start. It is a chicken and egg situation because the private sector will supply the need in larger towns and cities, but more peripheral regions, such as counties Wexford, Laois and the midlands generally, have not done as well from inward investment as other areas. That is why I established the Wexford initiative to examine the obstacles to industrial investment there.
Such obstacles do not only affect foreign investment because the indigenous sector tends to follow the same pattern. At a time when so much business is coming into the country and so much is happening in the country generally, we want to make sure - in so far as the Government and Government agencies can influence the location of such activity - that the right strategies are in place to do so. I am looking forward to the focused approach those involved in the Wexford initiative will have to issues that can help to redress the difficulties experienced in the county. They will look at the report drawn up by Mr. Peter Bacon, which forms a good foundation for what could or could not happen in Wexford. I look forward to receiving their report.
Mobile investment is not intended to come and go - it is actually foreign investment that is seeking a location. On occasion, it can be moved from elsewhere but, generally, it is a new project in search of a location. Some projects are expansions of existing activities and, therefore, if they are site-specific to companies such as Intel, Hewlett-Packard or IBM, there is a good chance they will expand on their existing campus facilities, although occasionally they might take their activities elsewhere.
Other projects require new facilities and we refer to them as mobile investment, which is overseas investment looking for a home. Ireland currently attracts about 27% of that investment which is coming into Europe, even though it accounts for only 1% of the EU's population. Due to its nature in the hi-tech sector and other knowledge-based industries, such investment tends to locate close to good third level education facilities. Unfortunately, areas that do not have such facilities on their doorstep have not done as well as those that do.
The roll-out of the broad band is one of the main purposes of this Supplementary Estimate. In my opening remarks I said Global Crossing will provide the infrastructure which will give Ireland 15 times the telecommunications capacity at about 15% of the cost. Since we liberalised the telecommunications industry we have over 30 different companies licensed to provide telecommunications facilities. Approximately 12 currently provide telecommunications services in the State. The main players are involved, including Ocean, Esat, Eircom, Worldcom and many others. The cost of those services and the range they supply is much greater than was the case before liberalisation.
Much needs to be done in this area because it is the infrastructure for new business in the information society, especially for e-commerce. The Government decided to provide these facilities jointly with the private sector to ensure that Ireland can become an e-commerce hub in Europe.
The rest of the country, including Kilkenny, will have a roll-out of these services. They are and will be provided by the existing operators such as Esat, Eircom, TGS and others. The intention is that the country will be able to have these facilities on a national basis at about 15% of the cost. We will be able to get into the international network, which will provide us with a huge advantage. It means that an island economy such as ours need not be peripheral in any sense. The use of e-business and having the appropriate facilities, including the people to work in these industries, can ensure that Ireland will do well. We are determined that should be the case.
Training in the hotels and tourism sector is a matter for CERT. That does not come under my Department and I am, therefore, reluctant to comment. There were difficulties but I understand that the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Deputy McDaid, together with the board of CERT, have been able to address some of them and to fill vacant places. There are very exciting opportunities in this sector because tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in the world and Ireland is in a unique position to get an increased share of the tourism market by virtue of the tourism product we offer and our high quality physical environment. There are many golf courses and numerous good hotel and catering facilities, which are nationally much better than a decade ago. There are great opportunities in the sector and I would like to see more young people taking them up.
With regard to skills and non-nationals, over the past 18 months my Department has granted an unprecedented number of permits for non-EEA nationals. If employers can prove to us within reason that they cannot find an EEA national to do a job we do not lay down unreasonable requirements with regard to the granting of permits. If there are difficulties more resources have been allocated to that division in the Department and the delays experienced in the past no longer apply.
Last July the Government decided that asylum seekers who are here for more than a year can work in the economy. It was decided that if employers apply for work permits in respect of such people we would grant them. That has not proved as successful as we anticipated, mainly because employers do not seem to be able to identify the people who qualify. This matter will be before the Cabinet next week - certainly before Christmas - to consider the possibility of issuing a letter of verification to the people that qualify and then allowing them the possibility of seeking employment. I referred to this in the Dáil last week. That may help to solve some of the needs, at least in the short-term.
In the longer term we want to look at a skills based immigration policy because there are major gaps. While there are possibilities with the increased participation of women in the workforce, there will be gaps in some sectors. If these are not filled or if skills shortages were to continue we could become uncompetitive very quickly. In the past we prided ourselves on having people for the new industries and that made Ireland very attractive. If there was a perception abroad that Ireland did not have the people for the jobs we would lose investment possibilities, which would be very damaging to our competitiveness and to the success of the economy we have experienced in recent years. We need an immigration policy that is skills orientated and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and I are currently working on proposals to bring to the Cabinet. I hope will be able to do so very soon.
Deputy Daly asked about the EU and approval for tax designation for enterprise zones, and so on. Near the end of its term in office the previous Government designated all the airports as centres for this purpose. EU approval had not been sought and it was not granted. There have been major difficulties with these designations. They expire at the end of the year, but to qualify it is necessary to get EU approval for the project. This means finding a project and securing EU approval before it can participate in the airport or port designations. Rosslare was the only port designated. To the best of my knowledge only one project was located, so it was not successful.
Given our EU membership and the new rules applying to designations, we are severely limited unless something is in the area of non-traded activity or only traded domestically. If anything interferes with or distorts trade within the internal market we cannot use the approaches we have used in the past to make things happen.
The Deputy referred to Kilrush and other areas in west County Clare. This is a matter for Enterprise Ireland. Recently we grant aided a number of enterprise centres, mainly in areas of high unemployment in cities. Some of them were located in other areas so there are possibilities. Enterprise Ireland has an enterprise development programme that includes the provision of enterprise centres. I do not know if Kilrush is on that list but I will communicate with Enterprise Ireland with regard to the promises made.
Money is included in the Estimates for next year for the social economy. It will be run by the social partnership committee that compiled the report in the first instance with involvement by people in my Department. Between the Estimates and the budget there is an unprecedented amount of money for training. A new training fund was announced by the Minister for Finance in the budget. That will be legislated for shortly. A significant part of that - I understand it will be £5 million - will be allocated to training for people with disabilities, which is very worthwhile. The social economy will fulfil an enormous number of the needs of people involved in the voluntary sector in areas that are not commercial at present and may never be so. It has a great capacity to fulfil the needs of many groups in society, especially in the unemployment blackspot areas.
