Job Creation: Statements

Job Creation: Statements

Thursday, 19 January 2012

Senator Ivana Bacik: I note the reaction of the children in the Visitors' Gallery to Senator Crown's suggestion that the study of science the whole way through school should be compulsory. It is certainly an innovative suggestion.

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. It is a new departure for the Seanad to hold an idea-sharing or, as others have described it, a “think-tank” session in which we can generate ideas and new concepts on job creation which we will then share with the Minister and will feed into the policy process on job creation. I agree with those colleagues who pointed out how important and vital job creation is for the future of our economy and in terms of us pulling ourselves out of the current economic crisis we are experiencing. Some excellent ideas have been already put forward. This shows the strength of the Seanad and the wide range of different experiences and expertise which each Senator brings. I note, as I look around the Chamber, the number of people here who could be described as entrepreneurs, social or commercial or both.

Some of the ideas put forward, including the social innovation office and job supremo, are useful ideas that will help the Government in facilitating the creation of jobs. As Senator Gilroy stated, we must be mindful of Government's role in this. I would like to address two points. My first is an idea not for job creation but for job support and retention of jobs. This was referred to in the Unite trade union's submission of May last to the Government's job initiative. It is a concept I came across with the German model — its car manufacturing industry in particular — and what happens when there is a downturn in consumption and the purchasing of cars, as happens from time to time internationally. One finds that in certain Lånder, or states, there is a very well developed subsidy scheme where employees are kept on, retaining the jobs in car manufacturing, but there is a subsidy from the state. It saves the state having to support the payment of redundancy and people from going on social welfare. The state ends up subsidising private industry to some extent. Unite has referred to this as the “exceptional short time working scheme” and points out that it has worked in other European countries, and as I mentioned, I am familiar with the German scheme. It allows employees reduce working hours without loss of job or income. Essentially, individuals employed in the car manufacturing industry go on shorter weeks of two to three days and are paid a reduced wage topped up by the state. This keeps people in work and the employer's business going while saving the state in the long term by retaining jobs. We should consider it here for certain areas and sectors.

Another idea comes from my background in legal training and education. To those who believe the public sector is bereft of entrepreneurial ability, I argue there are many examples of entrepreneurs created from the university sector. Some of our most successful indigenous companies have come from academia. I am currently on unpaid leave from the law school in Trinity and colleagues some years ago set up a very successful masters in law programme that has generated a significant amount of income for the university and the law school.

Having spoken to legal colleagues, I wanted to try to use that experience. A key idea would be to export legal services, particularly in legal education, in which we have a very good reputation. I trained at the bar in London and saw that at the Inns of Court School of Law, a large number of people — generally from the Commonwealth but also from other countries — came to London not just to study academic law but also to take a professional training course that would qualify them for the bar of England and their home countries. It occurs to me it would be very useful model for us to use as an English-speaking country steeped in the same common law tradition. We could consider such markets, many of which are emerging, and the universities are already targeting those student numbers. We could also consider this in light of professional legal training. Universities are already looking to build on that process.

We will have a debate on the Legal Services Regulation Bill, which envisages the opening up of professional legal training to the university sector beyond the current professional bodies. There are also opportunities for expanding the body of students we envisage teaching. There is a very sad fact of life in legal training currently in that we are educating many of our own students for export, and it is very hard for recent graduates in Ireland to get work in the legal professions. We must consider how to take a positive from the level of legal education we can offer by looking to offer it to people from other countries, in anticipation that such people would return to their countries with the benefit of legal training here. We could expand the legal education system in that way, not only creating jobs but a great deal of good will. It would strengthen our links with many countries.

Somebody mentioned earlier our trade links with Libya and there are immense opportunities for us in developing further links with countries in the Middle East, north Africa and in the Far East, where there are many emerging markets, as others have said.