Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Taoiseach can talk all he likes or as loudly as he likes but that is the reality. The proof is in the declining employment figures we see month after month. There are now almost 400,000 people unemployed and the ESRI report states the unemployment rate will reach 17%, almost one in five people, by the end of next year. That is a disgraceful record. It is not good enough. It is no longer acceptable that the Government washes its hands of this problem and pretends it has nothing to do with it. Every report from the ESRI and the International Monetary Fund and all international commentary now state that the worst performing economy in the developed world, in terms of employment and banking, is the Irish economy. The Taoiseach and the Government are responsible for that. They have dug a big hole for the Irish people by the way they mismanaged the economy in recent years and Irish working people are paying for that. They are losing their jobs, their businesses are going to the wall and their pay-packets are being plundered in order to bail out banks, developers and others who are the real cause célèbre on the Government side of the House.

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