Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

-----in its short life - if I might continue - it has attempted to honour one commitment made before the election but that must also be qualified and quantified. It can be compared to the promises made before the election. On 23 February 2011, two days before polling, Fine Gael promised to publish a jobs budget within 100 days of coming into government and they promised it would result in the creation of 100,000 jobs. They said the cost would be up to €7 billion and that it would be funded by the sale of State assets - a sale for which there is no support in this House and I doubt if the Minister's party will sell some of its principles and do this, but perhaps it might. Will it really sell the likes of Coillte, ESB or Bord na Móna, to name but a few? Even if they are to be sold, it will not be to fund a jobs budget or a jobs initiative but to fund repayments to the IMF and the EU.

As I said last night, the Government is now engaged in crying the mantra of "straitjacket". When they sought to overturn the last Government, they claimed the country was "banjaxed" and suggested the Government's policies were akin to "economic treason". They said they would rid the people of the requirement to fund the banks, of austerity and of the four-year plan. They said they would act on such red-line issues, but they have been unable to do so. Over the last two weeks, we have heard them say they are confined in a straitjacket with a red rose on it.

I assure the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, and the Tánaiste, Deputy Gilmore, that the day will come when the members of this Government have to look the people in the eye. As sure as night follows day, that will happen. They will have to admit that in their quest for the power that comes with the positions of Taoiseach and Tánaiste, they were prepared to play the theatrics of fear, to play games and to play politics not only with the future of the country but also with the emotions and hopes of its people.

I would like to acknowledge some of the positive elements of this initiative, which was referred to by the Minister for Finance as "modest". I welcome the alterations to the PRSI code, the reduction in the rate of VAT that applies in the hospitality sector, the roads and schools programmes, the training places, the back to education initiative, the internship schemes and the home retrofitting scheme. Each of these commendable and well-intentioned efforts was perfectly wrapped and packaged and opened on Tuesday amid great fanfare. When the Minister, Deputy Noonan, described the initiative as "modest", it was time to look out, read into it and see the climbdowns and flip-flops that were slightly acknowledged by the Minister himself. We took the hint that we should check it out. When we perused it, we could see at a glance the slight of hand, the failure to include a net job prediction and the three-card trickery of it all.

The biggest issue that arose was how it would be paid for. We have learned that it will be paid for by means of private sector savings and pension contributions that have already been earned and taxed. I suppose we should not have been surprised because the Government is doing the opposite of what it said it would do before 25 February last. It did not tell us it would do this. It is consistent in a perverted sort of way.

One of the great paradoxes of the initiative relates to the reduction in the rate of VAT charged on a person's five-course meal and trip to the theatre. While that person is enjoying his night out, someone else is freezing with the cold in his house because the rate of VAT imposed on home heating has not been similarly reduced. Many Ministers have been raving about three key areas of this initiative that were particularly well-wrapped and packaged. Government Deputies have been rushing to their telephones and faxes to inform their constituents about these three areas.

It was announced that €30 million is to be provided for the environmental retrofitting of homes and houses, but €11 million of that fund had already been provided for from within the allocation of the relevant Department. Some €30 million is to be provided for summer works schemes in schools, but €20 million had already been committed to that end. It was also announced that €135 million is to be provided for all other forms of capital expenditure, but €106 million of that fund is coming from existing provisions. More than half of the almost €200 million that is to be spent under these three areas of the initiative had already been committed. When the Deputies opposite were making their telephone calls - I am sure it sounded like they were repeating themselves - they should have bowed their heads and told the people that a Fianna Fáil-led Government had already provided 70% of these moneys at the beginning of the year.

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