Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have done very well at a time when capital resources generally have been severely constrained. The proportion of those capital resources that we are winning has grown consistently and has almost doubled. As Senator Quinn observed, the Government does not create jobs; rather, enterprise is what creates jobs. Our programmes have been aligned to support enterprise in creating the jobs.

I do not accept that there is a slowing down in jobs growth in the key enterprise sectors. The CSO quarterly review data will show increases and decreases; such variations will always exist. However, overall we are seeing a healthy recovery in the jobs situation and in my view we will see more sectors enjoying the impact of that recovery. I believe we can be optimistic about jobs growth and that we will exceed the 100,000 target we set for 2016. I know many people regarded that target as wildly ambitious when we set it.

If we stick to the right approach, we will exceed our targets and the date of reaching full employment will be closer rather than further away.

In regard to the 2015 budget, we are in discussions with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and there will have to be collective Cabinet decisions on the allocations. We will be pitching hard for areas in which we identify opportunities. It is a matter for the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform as to whether the submissions are published. The format it used involved examining what would happen as a consequence of a 10% increase, for example, or 10% decrease in capital allocation. It was a case of scenario testing in order to determine the issues on which we might make our decisions. Rather than specific proposals being under consideration, it was about testing what might happen if we had more or less and how better performance could be put on the different budgets. It was a good way to go.

The Government has been right to seek to hit our financial targets as a priority. Others have advocated a different approach, such as taking whatever was left in the National Pensions Reserve Fund and using it for one last stimulus approach. That would have been totally foolhardy. Those moneys are now going into the Irish Infrastructure Fund, Ireland Strategic Investment Fund and the various SME funds. That particular resource, which would have been spent under the other approach, is now being used to drive enterprise growth. Ours has been the correct approach. The record stands very clear that by managing our public resources prudently and focusing on enterprise, we are getting a jobs bounce which countries that did not take those types of approaches simply have not achieved.