Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

As it does every year, the Government will spend something in the order of €15 billion to €16 billion in the health services plus an enormous capital programme. I will not go back over the issues in health.

Regarding Deputy Gilmore's economic question, and on unemployment particularly, in responding to issues of an economic and fiscal nature we have been upfront about the risks for the past six months. It is important to remain calm and avoid taking short-term, knee-jerk reactions that could damage our long-term prospects. As I continually said in the House, when the full figures for 2007 were produced, we would see that the economy was strong, if contracting in the last quarter. We know the GDP rate for last year and that the economy grew by 5.4%, far higher than people expected.

The situation in the markets over the past month reflects international issues rather than specific Irish concerns, as we are all aware. From our economic position the fundamentals are very strong, a fact borne out by the national account figures, which are there for everyone to see. Employment continues to grow, there are very low national debt levels and we have a very flexible economy. This is not just my view but the view of most economic commentators. We are addressing the short-term challenges from a position of strength. Our medium-term prospects are favourable. The lowest economic figure for growth for this year from the economic houses is not in the negative — it is 2.2% and rising to 3.5% next year and still growing in a difficult period.

Last week's Exchequer returns indicate a very good performance in income tax, which is up 5% on the same period last year. This shows the real health of the Irish economy and reflects the most important part of economic activity, employment, which remains strong. It is a positive indicator of the resilience of the Irish economy, even at a more difficult time. We are not complacent and fiscal policy is addressing the more pressing economic situation in a number of ways. The Deputy's question is a fair one and in response I will refer to three of those ways. We are giving priority to measures that enhance our productive capacity. The continued roll-out of the national development plan at the highest level this country has ever done and far higher than any other European country at over 6% is giving us an infrastructure and investment programme that is helping the economy through a difficult period. We are slowing the rate of the increase in current spending, which is necessary, and we are removing uncertainty in the housing market through the changes made in stamp duty and increases in the ceiling for mortgage relief and interest rates.

In the past three and a half years, from autumn 2004 to spring 2008, a relatively short period, employment has grown by 243,000 or 13%, with unemployment increasing by only 15,200 in the same period. It is generally accepted that the rate of growth in the economy and in employment over the past few years could not continue at that rate. Still, we are in a very strong position. Looking back over that period, with almost 250,000 jobs created and unemployment increasing by only 15,000, the figures speak for themselves. The live register figures for March, released recently, show the number of people signing on has increased to almost 198,000. That is the highest since August 1999 and the highest at this time of the year since March 1999 and reflects these increases. Looking at what is happening in the economy and quarter on quarter growth, we are still in an extremely healthy position, but we must manage ourselves through this period. With almost 2.25 million people working in the economy, we are in a strong position to get through what is hopefully a short-term difficult position, which is how the Central Bank, the European Central Bank, the OECD and every economic analysis group here and in the European context views this.

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