Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

First, to answer Deputy Gilmore, in no way have I suggested that these figures are mere statistics. As I said at the weekend, behind every statistic, behind every job loss, is a person or family whose difficulties are made all the greater by losing their job than was the case in the past, with the anxiety and concern that it brings with it. That point is understood and well made by everybody and all of us in public life are cognisant of that.

Second, I was simply making that point that these figures, every one of which we would rather not have as we would rather see every one of those 354,000 people in work than not in work, represent 10.4% of, thankfully, a more enlarged workforce than was the case in the 1980s when we had these sorts of figures.

The third point I make in this regard concerns the problem of the loss of employment, which the Deputy raised. If we could reverse that, obviously our budgetary situation would improve because there would be more people contributing to the Exchequer. However, the loss of jobs is an outcome and a function of the fact demand for our goods and services at home and abroad is less than before, which is having its impact on the real economy. There are also competitiveness issues we have to address, some of which were not within our control. For example, the depreciation of sterling against the euro, which saw a 30% swing in three or four months, has a major effect, particularly for Irish-based industry whose main market is the UK, quite apart from the domestic market.

Therefore, to try to devise enterprise supports to assist industry to come through this most difficult and unique trading circumstances is a policy option we must also seek to address, as the Deputy said, in the overall context of bringing forward initiatives that will address the public finance position, which must be addressed. We must also seek, where possible, to provide assistance that would be appropriate and targeted to those areas of the economy that produce the wealth and the jobs, and maintain people in employment. There are viable but vulnerable companies but the circumstances with which they are now contending make it all the more difficult for them to continue to trade to the same extent, achieve the level of profits, attract the level of investment and create the number of jobs that was the case in the past. Those are my answers to the points raised on the employment front.

On the other question raised by the Deputy in regard to the date of the supplementary budget, I have made the point that the Government made a decision yesterday that by the end of the month we will make whatever decisions are necessary to ensure we, to the greatest extent possible, can provide a deficit position for this year of 9.5%, which does not exceed that figure the markets have factored in as part of our correction process over the coming years to bring order back to our public finances. It is a huge challenge, as has been said, and one that will require the full efforts of everyone in the House. I look forward to everyone constructively contributing to that debate. We will also have the social partners brought in to be briefed tomorrow to bring them up to date as to the impact of the February figures, and we look forward to hearing what they have to say.

The Government obviously has the bounden duty to address this issue quickly and to do so after giving full consideration not only to the impact of the figures, as best as one can gauge them in month two when facing into a situation this year which is difficult in any case, but we also have a duty to consider the impact the various policy initiatives being considered would have and how we come forward with an overall approach which, to the greatest extent possible, while it will not be able to eliminate further casualties on the jobs front during the course of this year, will seek to maximise that position.

Finally, the figures that were mentioned in regard to unemployment were somewhere in the region of 400,000. It appears clear that if the present rate of job loss were to continue, we are looking well beyond that, certainly in the region of 450,000 and more. We have to be cognisant of that as well.

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