Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. He touched on employment creation. I am thinking back to when Deputy Bruton became Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and he promised to create 100,000 jobs in five years. I am not sure many of us believed it was possible when we campaigned but now we are in the position that since 2011, 800,000 jobs have been created in this country. This was started by Deputy Bruton. We went from 1.8 million to almost 2.6 million jobs. I do not expect the Minister of State to follow with another 800,000 jobs but it is important to recognise where we have come from and where we are.

I have several points on which I want to get the opinion of the Minister of State. One relates to people with disabilities in the workforce, another is yesterday's announcement on changes to housing and this touches on construction workers having job security. In Tipperary I see a lot of construction workers working for developers building one-off houses here and there. They end up moving from developer to developer. In a number of the changes announced yesterday I see an opportunity for the construction sector to have certainty about building more houses over a period of time, which will give certainty to workers with regard to staying with a builder for a longer period of time rather than moving from one builder to another. I would like to get the thoughts of the Minister of State on the measures announced yesterday and how they will support workers in the construction sector.