Fine Gael Enterprise, Trade & Employment Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD has described the loss of 785 high-value jobs at Pfizer as ‘a meltdown in the multinational sector’.

“This is a terrible day for Ireland and its multinational sector. Ireland is taking a much bigger hit than other countries, with three of the eight sites that are being ‘exited’ located in this country. Some 785 of the 6,000 jobs being lost are based in Ireland.

“Pfizer is also shedding jobs in the US, UK, Germany and Puerto Rico. However France, Sweden, Spain and Australia are not affected.

“The scale of the lay-offs in Ireland alone should send a clear signal to Government that it cannot afford to ignore Fine Gael’s warnings about Ireland’s lack of competitiveness any longer.

“Fine Gael is calling on the Government to immediately adopt our plans for a National Competitiveness Action Plan to improve infrastructure and reduce the cost of doing business, which would include the following elements:

 

• A reduction in all Government and local authority charges of roughly 5%;

 

• A reduction of Government regulated prices like telecoms and energy;

 

• A PRSI waiver for new jobs;

 

• The implementation of Fine Gael’s NewERA plan to improve energy and telecoms infrastructure across the State;

 

• No further reduction in the capital budget; and the

 

• Introduction of emergency measures to save jobs and retrain the unemployed such as work-sharing, internships and second chance education.

 

“The No.1 priority of the next Fine Gael government will be jobs. We will stem the tide of job losses and restore Ireland to full employment.”

“This is a Fianna Fáil recession, caused by reckless and irresponsible Fianna Fáil politicians who ignored all warning and all opposition as they inflated away our competitiveness, squandered our surplus and allowed the banks to run amok. Fianna Fáil is to blame for all of that and we must never let them forget it.”

“Today, in my constituency of Dublin West, there are men who get up early every morning, put on their suit and pretend to go to work. They spend their redundancy money because they do not know how to explain to their children that they can no longer afford to give them the childhood that they had planned.”

“Ireland does not need a new Cabinet. Ireland needs a new government, with a five year term, a solid majority and a mandate for change. We need a new team in charge. Fine Gael is that team.”

 

• NewERA: transform semi-State companies, use the proceeds from privatisations and money from the national pension fund to leverage billions of euros of private investment into broadband, water and energy. This will create tens of thousands of jobs and improve competitiveness.

 

• Jobs Plan: set up internships for unemployed graduates, encourage employers to take on redundant apprentices and provide second chance education for those who left school early.

 

• Workshare: use the €20 billion welfare budget to persuade businesses to retain staff. This would subsidise the difference between salaries and training grants for staff placed on short-time.

 

• Where employees are put on a three day week or week-on/week-off arrangement, the Government will ensure they maintain 75% of original income up to the average wage. This could be higher where a collective agreement is in place and the employer is willing to pay more.

 

• Banking: Telling the banks that taxpayers’ money will not be used to pay for their mistakes. Troubled banks will be split into good and bad units, with the good banks sold off to recover monies already paid over by taxpayers.

 

• Budget policy: Bring the deficit under control, while rejecting any notion that Ireland can tax its way back to a balanced Budget.

 

• Competitiveness: We are drafting a National Competitiveness Action Plan to drive down business costs and make Ireland competitive again.Job creation is FG’s No. 1 priority

 

Fine Gael Enterprise Spokesperson Leo Varadkar TD has published new laws to slash Government costs by 5%, saving the average household around €400 a year.

Deputy Varadkar has drafted the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Bill 2010 which requires the Government to reduce all of its charges to businesses and consumers by 5% within three weeks. In 2009, private sector prices fell by 2.5% but Government prices went up 6.7%.

The Bill also calls on Regulators to come up with plans to reduce prices they set and present them to the Dáil within four months. Assuming these further price cuts are also 5% across the board, the average household would stand to save a total of €400 from this measure in a full year. The savings to business would be greater still.

Speaking at the launch, Deputy Varadkar said: ‘Last year, the Government introduced emergency legislation to cut pay, benefits and fees paid to professionals and contractors. Everyone has been squeezed by falling incomes and higher taxes. The very least the Government could do to help is reduce its own charges and the prices set by its Regulators. In 2009, private sector prices fell by 2.5% but Government prices went up 6.7%’.

“People don’t realise just how many prices are set by the Government:

• The TV licence and drivers’ licence;
• Passport renewal fees; A&E charges;
• Prescription charges (DPS);
• State exam fees;
• And college registration fees, fees charged to companies for filing accounts, farm administration fees, and fees charged for making a freedom of information request.

“Through local government, agencies and Regulators the Government sets prices for electricity and gas, local authority refuse and water charges, some motorway tolls, bus and train fares, mobile telephone tariffs and airport landing fees.

“If Fianna Fáil and the Greens back this measure from Fine Gael, it will save Irish families and consumers hundreds of euros, and soften the blow of recent pay cuts, benefit cuts and tax hikes. It will also reduce the cost of doing business, improve our competitiveness and save jobs. I think it’s a no-brainer. I urge the Government parties will support it when it is debated in the Dáil.”

The Bill and Explanatory Memorandum can be accessed here.

It’s time for Govt action, not ‘old rope’

“While I very much respect and value the work that has been done by the IDA over the years, no amount of reports, task forces, or strategy documents will fix our broken economy and get Ireland back to work,” Fine Gael Enterprise, Trade & Employment Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD said today (Tuesday) after the IDA published its new strategy.

“This strategy proposes to keep taxes low, reduce our costs, invest in education, and build a modern infrastructure. This is all old rope and we’ve heard it all before.

“What we need is action and leadership from the Government. If they won’t act, they should move aside and allow Fine Gael to take up the reins of power. Then we will implement our costed and well-received policies such as:

 

• NewERA, to stimulate the economy and build a modern infrastructure;
• The Third Way, to improve third level education;
• And a National Competitiveness Action Plan.

“Moreover, while foreign direct investment will continue to be an important part of our economy, we need to refocus more on supporting indigenous Irish enterprises, and transforming them into market leaders, exporters, and global companies in their own right.”

Govt pressure vital to make landlords cut rents

Ireland’s small business sector is being decimated by a ‘perfect storm’ of shrinking credit supplies and Government neglect according to Fine Gael Enterprise, Trade & Employment Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD.

Deputy Varadkar was speaking after reports showed that half of all construction jobs have gone, the number of Irish companies going under has by jumped 33% in one month, and credit supplies are getting even tighter.

“Viable businesses are being wiped out, and small and medium enterprises (SME) are the hardest hit. Ireland will not see any economic recovery without a vibrant SME sector. But we are rapidly losing this important resource.

“The Fianna Fáil/Green Government should be doing far more to save viable businesses. This includes:

• A new National Recovery Bank to get lending going again to viable businesses, because NAMA clearly is not working;
• A National Competitiveness Action Plan to bring down costs controlled or regulated by the Government;
• As well as abolishing upward-only rent reviews on new contracts, the Government must also apply pressure on landlords to bring down costs on existing contracts in order to reflect true market value.”

Fine Gael will use its private members time this week to put forward its eight point plan to save jobs and to create tens of thousands of placement for the young unemployed, Spokesperson for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar said today (Sunday). The motion will be debated in the Dáil on Tuesday culminating in a vote on Wednesday night.

“Fine Gael is horrified by the Governments ‘hands-off’ approach to job retention and job creation. Ireland now has the second highest unemployment rate in the Eurozone and over 85,000 people under the age of 25 are now drawing the dole. The sole focus of Government policy has been on the budget and the banks to the detriment of jobs and competitiveness. This needs to change. …[more]

Ireland needs new corporate culture

Addressing the Irish Stock Exchange Conference in Dublin, Fine Gael Enterprise Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD called for a new corporate culture to restore Ireland’s battered reputation overseas. Deputy Varadkar addressed the conference on the issue of corporate governance as an invited panellist.

“The reputational damage that has been done to Ireland by the activities of our banks, Government and State agencies has done real damage to Ireland’s reputation overseas. This damage comes at a cost. It is harder and more expensive for the Government to borrow money from the international capital markets. It is more difficult for Irish companies to secure credit from the banks, capital from investors and export credit insurance. And it is harder for Irish companies to sell their goods and services overseas.

“This reputational damage, however, does not have to be lasting damage. We are not alone. Other countries have endured reputational damage too. But it is up to us to put our house in order, to do it quickly and to show the world that Ireland is second to none when it comes to corporate governance, ethics and open Government.

“Yes, we need new laws. We need to restrict the practice whereby CEOs can graduate from management to become Chairman of the Board as occurred at FÁS and Anglo Irish Bank.
…[more]

Daft wage system needs reform

Minister Calleary’s reforms are a recipe for fudge

‘Daft’ laws which see hair stylists being paid 6c an hour more than barbers, which fix wage rates for hotel staff in Co. Dublin but not in the city centre, and which limit pay rates for beef butchers but not fishmongers, are being left intact as part of the Government’s much-hyped tinkering with minimum pay and condition orders, Fine Gael Enterprise Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD has warned.

Deputy Varadkar was speaking today in a Dáil debate on the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Bill.

“Junior Minister Dara Calleary has flunked the challenge to reform the Labour Court’s outdated and cumbersome wage-setting system. This system sets minimum rates, terms, conditions and benefits in the hospitality, grocery, agricultural and security sectors (among others). But it is currently a recipe for chaos. The whole system is outmoded, unrepresentative, cumbersome and restrictive.

“It is costing us jobs in hotels, restaurants and the retail sector. It penalises honest employers and often prevents employees from working when they are willing to do so. You could not make up some of the rulings, which are just plain daft:

• The Hotel Employment Regulation Order applies to Co. Dublin but not to Dublin City, to Co. Cork and Co. Kerry but not in Cork city;

• One set of rules applies to hair salons in Cork, with another for Dublin, Dun Laoghaire and Bray. But there are no rules at all for the rest of the country;

• The Retail Employment Regulation Order applies to any shop that sells food items, but not to those that sell only bread, cakes, buns or beef, unless the beef is pressed. It applies to tobacconists but not off-licences;

• The Catering Order applies to pubs in some parts of the country but not others and only to those that sell food as well alcohol;

• Tailors, dressmakers and shirtmakers have different rates of pay;

• The minimum rate for cutting a man’s hair is 6c an hour less than for cutting a woman’s hair, but a unisex hairdresser gets the male rate for all customers.

…[more]

Fine Gael TD for Dublin West has welcomed confirmation that Fingal County Council and Castlethorn Construction have agreed terms for the sale of a secondary school site at Kellystown near Porterstown between Castleknock and Clonsilla. The site will be the permanent home for Luttrellstown Community College which is currently operating from temporary premises adjacent to Blanchardstown Hospital. The school will open to residents of Porterstown area.

Contracts are expected to be signed in the coming months. A planning application will follow and it is hoped that new state-of-art school buildings and community facilities will be on site for September 2011, once the issue of road access is addressed.

‘The rezoning of the Kellystown area was controversial. Fine Gael supported it as it was the only way to secure school sites and additional recreational facilities and open space for the area and strictly on the proviso that this would be provided before any new housing. I am pleased that progress is now being made.’

Over the New Year period, I had the opportunity to visit Taiwan at the invitation of their government. I traveled there on December 27th with Michael Ahern of Fianna Fail who is a former Minister for Trade. Our hosts were impressed that we visited Taiwan during our holiday period in Ireland rather than while the Dail was in session. I image the Irish media would put a different spin on it. I came back on the 4th of January to a land of ice and snow. I’ve been working from home since then and am getting lots of work done in the absence of interruptions that are all to common around Leinster House.

Even though it is half the World and a whole day’s travel away, there are a lots of parallels between Ireland and Taiwan.  We are both located on the edge of a large continent and both have a big neighbour that is both a cousin and an adversary.  We have followed a similar path economically, starting of as a low-cost manufacturing centre and now in transition to a knowledge economy.

Taiwan is the 20th biggest economy in the World, has a population of 23 million and is home to companies like Acer and Giant.  It’s GDP per capita is about one third of ours but the standard of living seems closer.  Taiwan has the World’s fourth largest foreign reserves in it’s treasury.  I offered to sell them a bank or two.  They thought I was joking.
…[more]