Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

Where did the concept of economic renewal go when the Government came to drawing up the budget strategy that was presented just six days after the last meeting of that committee? In the budget, there was only one reference to supporting jobs, which was an enterprise fund of €50 million in two years, at a time when the Government's document was forecasting 250,000 jobs would be lost over those two years. The Taoiseach can work out the sums for himself. This represents a stimulus package of approximately €200 for every job being lost. Do we not need a completely separate arm to budgetary strategy that focuses on the investments in infrastructure we will need in future to get us out of this hole? Why did the budget not address that task? Fine Gael-----

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