Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Durkan. If one looks at where we are now with the stability programme update, we are in the early days, I hope, of the Covid pandemic not being the health threat that it has been for the past two years. We have more people working in Ireland than we have ever had previously. We have public finances that, for this year, are projecting a deficit of less than 1% of our national income or, in cash terms, €2 billion. The recovery of our economy, of our jobs and our public finances from the pandemic has been remarkable. A significant contributor to that has been the strength of the economic supports that we had in place, their duration and their design. As I look at the time ahead and the point Deputy Durkan made regarding the health of our jobs market at present, that is probably the main reason we are still projecting, with everything that is going on around our country, a growth rate of just over 4%.

Given the circumstances we are in that is a very healthy growth performance for our economy overall. It may well be lower than the figures we have enjoyed and delivered before Covid hit but in relative terms, when compared with other countries within the EU and some of our neighbours, it is a strong performance. If we are able to avoid some of the further economic risks and difficulties this report outlines and says could happen - we try to say what impact that could have on our growth - it is still possible that for this year and next year, we will see more people working than we have before and we will have public finances that will improve and give us the ability to make some progress on all of the other issues our country wants to see progress on. One of the key drivers of that is the strength in employment and the ability for the number of people at work to still grow this year and next year. It is very positive to have that in place but we cannot take it for granted and certainly as we approach the budget we will look at what measures and choices we must make from a budgetary point of view that will help us continue that jobs-led recovery into 2023.