Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I watched the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance deliver their press conference on the Internet. I saw them answer the questions posed by journalists and I looked through their statement. Whatever this is, it is not a plan for the economy. It is a back of the envelope book-keeping exercise. It contains a few prudent measures, some of which had been sought for some time from this side of the House. Examples include dropping the ministerial pay increase and measures relating to decentralisation, something about which I questioned the Taoiseach only a couple of weeks ago.

Most of the statement appears to be full of headline grabbers that appear to be designed more to restore political confidence in the Government than to restore confidence in the economy. The astonishing thing about it is that it says little or nothing to the 54,000 people who have lost their jobs over the past year. We are talking about an additional 2,668 people in Waterford, 3,389 in Cork and 1,250 in Blanchardstown. Forty three of the labour exchanges in this country have seen an increase in unemployment of more than 50% in the past 12 months. Most of that increase comes from job losses in the private sector, while there are hundreds of thousands of people who are worried about their jobs this evening. There is nothing in this plan that puts those people back to work or makes them secure in their employment. In fact, the only thing the Government provides is a plan to continue paying them the dole, rather than a plan to get them back to work.

What is the Government's plan to restore confidence in the economy and to get the private sector growing again? There is a proposal to reduce the payroll bill by 3% across every Department, State agency and local authority, with the exception of health and education. How much of the €1 billion the Government plans to save next year will be achieved by that 3% cut? How much of that 3% cut will be achieved by a reduction in the number of public servants who are working in those Departments? What assessment was done by the Government of the impact of such cuts on the public services for which those Departments are responsible?

Can we take it that today's announcement is the totality of the measures that will be announced by individual Departments, State agencies and local authorities? For example, will the 3% pay cut in the payroll in local authorities be made up by those authorities introducing additional charges or increasing existing charges?

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