With 388,600 people now on the live register and unemployment doubling in just 12 months, Fine Gael Enterprise Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD has called on the Government to provide urgent support for struggling small & medium enterprises (SMEs) to halt job losses.

“The latest live register figures are alarming. Ireland now has the second highest unemployment in the Eurozone at 11.4%. By Christmas, there could be half a million people on the dole.

“Small & medium enterprises (SMEs) currently employ 800,000 people and represent 97% of Irish companies, which makes the SME sector Ireland’s biggest employer. However, many of these enterprises are losing business as consumer demand falls and are shedding jobs as a result. To date, the Government has done almost nothing to support business even though this is the most effective way to sustain jobs.

“I have been calling on the Government for some time to introduce a package of key measures to support small businesses:

• Provide a Government-backed loan guarantee for SMEs, as has been done in the UK;
• Reduce both rates of VAT and abolish the Travel Tax (as proposed in the Fine Gael alternative Budget);
• Launch a PRSI exemption for companies taking on new employees;
• Freeze local authority rates and charges to business.

“The absence of job incentives from the Government means there is an absence of hope. Ireland cannot tax its way back to recovery, but that is exactly what the Government is trying to do. Any path to recovery must involve incentives to protect jobs and create new ones.”

Banks are engaged in ripping off customers to the tune of €90 million this year by hiking up interest rates on loans and overdrafts by an extra 1% above the European market rate, according to Fine Gael Enterprise Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD.

“Even worse, this rip-off started just after taxpayers were asked by the Government to guarantee Irish bank deposits,” Deputy Varadkar said.

“The rip-off is revealed in a Fine Gael analysis of interest rates charged by Irish banks for overdrafts and personal loans since 2006. Irish interest rates broadly tracked the standard European market rate, the Euribor, between August 2006 and August 2008.

“But since the Government bank guarantee was introduced, Irish rates have shot up by at least 1% on top of the Euribor rate. Someone with a car loan of €20,000 will therefore be paying an extra €200 a year in interest payments.
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Fine Gael Enterprise Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD has called on the Government to include a new law in the forthcoming NAMA Bill to help homeowners to escape from high fixed-rate mortgages.

“Young homeowners and young families have been hit hard by the recession. They have seen their income eroded by pay cuts, levies and new taxes. The average young family with two young children has lost over €4,000 in take-home pay since this time last year.

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The emergency Budget will tax people out of their jobs and on to the dole queues, according to Fine Gael Enterprise, Trade and Employment Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD.

“The Emergency Budget should have been about reducing spending and protecting jobs. Instead, Fianna Fáil has decided to tax people out of their jobs and push them on to the dole queue. The Budget will make the economic crisis much worse, and it is now likely that over half a million people will be unemployed by Christmas.

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Profitable companies should have the option of sharing profits with employees as an alternative to pay rises under any new pay deal, Fine Gael Enterprise Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD told a meeting of Young Fine Gael delegates at the Fine Gael Ard Fheis today (Saturday).

“Last September, IBEC and the unions negotiated an 18 month pay agreement for the private sector. Since then, the economy has slid into a deep recession, unemployment has soared, businesses are closing down and we have moved from inflation to deflation for the first time in a generation. This means the National Pay Deal was dead on arrival. IBEC’s weekend olive branch and the decision of the unions to call off Monday’s strike action presents the opportunity to agree a new pay deal. This opportunity must not be lost.

“To bring about recovery, the Government must stabilise the public finances by reducing borrowing, and restore competitiveness by bringing costs back into line with our competitors. Any new pay deal agreed by the social partners must honour these objectives and not avoid them.

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We gather today during difficult times for our nation. Since we last met in Wexford, less than five months ago, 100,000 people have lost their jobs. That’s roughly one person every two minutes. Unemployment in Ireland now stands at 11%, the third highest in western Europe. Twelve years ago, when this party left office, it was at 10% and falling. Every week, we welcomed the creation of 1,000 new jobs.

In little more than two and a half years, Fine Gael in government reduced unemployment by one third. And by rebuilding that economic model, we can do again.

This year, Ireland will borrow €18 billion just to pay our bills. We have the biggest Budget deficit in the eurozone and one of the biggest in the world. Economists, the ESRI and other learned institutions divide that deficit into structural and cyclical parts. A cyclical deficit of about €6 billion caused by the international financial crisis. And a structural deficit of about €14 billion that was created here at home.

Delegates, the structural deficit is the Fianna Fáil deficit, caused by a decade of mismanagement, profligate spending, waste and unsustainable tax policies.

In government in the 1990s, Fine Gael closed the last Fianna Fáil deficit and balanced the Budget for the first time in a generation. And by rebuilding our public services from the bottom and rebuilding our tax system from the top down, we can do it again.

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With the live register soaring to 372,800 and likely to reach half a million by the end of the year, Fine Gael Enterprise Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD has called on Brian Cowen to implement his Party’s jobs plan, ‘Rebuilding Ireland’ and adopt Fine Gael’s proposals to support business and retraining.

“More than one in ten people are now on the dole. With the live register at 372,800 after just three months, unemployment is likely to reach half a million by the end of the year. This is a catastrophe on a massive scale.

“Ireland now has one of the highest unemployment rates in the eurozone, higher than Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands. Only Belgium and Spain have higher unemployment rates. Fine Gael’s Rebuilding Ireland proposals would generate 100,000 jobs over the next four years. A new industrial development company, New ERA (the New Economy and Recovery Authority) would focus on major investments in telecommunications, green energy networks and an essential nationwide broadband network. …[more]