Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 18 February 2015
Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on the Department of the Taoiseach
Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (Revised)
Vote 2 - Department of the Taoiseach (Revised)
Vote 3 - Office of the Attorney General (Revised)
Vote 4 - Central Statistics Office (Revised)
Vote 5 - Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (Revised)
Vote 6 - Office of the Chief State Solicitor (Revised)
3:00 pm
Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source
With regard to the Action Plan for Jobs, if exact figures regarding job creation are not identified it will be difficult to perform the proper analysis, and if there is no proper analysis it will be difficult to develop appropriate policies. If one looks at the CSO figures, between March 2011 and February 2015 58,600 new jobs were created by the State. There is a significant discrepancy between that figure and the figure quoted by the Government of 80,000, or 100,000, depending whom one listens to. If one includes the activation jobs in this figure, it is about 21%. Does the Taoiseach agree that there is a necessity for a more honest appraisal of the state of play with regard to job creation? That is the first question.
There are sections within society that have not benefitted from job creation. Between March 2011 and February 2015, the west and south west of Ireland continued to experience a reduction in the number of existing jobs. There are 48,500 fewer people under the age of 35 in employment. There are 1,783 fewer long-term unemployed; this is a marginal decrease. Ireland still has the highest rates of underemployment in the EU and the lowest pay among OECD countries. How will the Action Plan for Jobs tackle these issues?
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