Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that neither Mr. Ryan nor his colleagues are responsible for Government policy per se or for the setting of that particular target of 100,000 jobs, but I am very alarmed by the fact that there was not a detailed discussion, analysis and mapping process in terms of the potential jobs yield from now until 2016 before the figure of 100,000 jobs was bounced into the public domain. The reason I am pressing this point with Mr. Ryan - I heard what he said and I am not gainsaying a number of very innovative things Enterprise Ireland is doing, which I acknowledge - is that there is a bottom line here for taxpayers and citizens, which is that too many of our people cannot find jobs. Levels of emigration are similar to those in the 1800s, so we are losing talent and people are losing family members. Mr. Ryan knows the social consequences of all of this.