Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I believed there was a new development when I heard the announcement yesterday evening that the Minister is putting what sounds like a €250 million fund in place for job retention. If so, I welcome it warmly. I have not heard any details about it but I hope it is modelled on a proposal such as the one my party made to the Minister in March before the April budget. We advocate that a fund of €300 million, to be administered by Enterprise Ireland, be made available over a six-month period with a view to retaining jobs. We propose that the subsidy that would apply to each job in viable businesses requiring assistance would amount to a maximum of €200 or 20% of an employee's salary.

I hope this is being proposed by the Minister. However, there are a couple of difficulties, one of which is that we do not have any detail. For how long will the €250 million fund be made available? Will it be for six or 12 months? We advocate a six-month pilot project to allow us to see what is happening. This would save in the order of 90,000 jobs. This would be good for the economy, keep the bicycle upright, serve as a stimulus and encourage people to make investments. However, we have heard no details of the Minister's scheme.

We now hear about a package worth €1 billion. I am concerned that this may partly be to keep the social partnership talks ticking over. Why would the Minister mention a fund worth €1 billion and not give us any details thereon? Can he understand why I am suspicious? We heard announcements of funds from the Government before but in many cases they were re-announcements. It is not unusual to hear this Government re-announce something three or four times, without giving detail. It is really bluff and bluster. That causes us major concern. Is this a genuine announcement? Will the Minister tell us when he will give us details of the scheme? The one feature missing from Government policy is job retention and creation. We have not had a stimulus package to get the economy going. The Government has been silent on this. Will the Minister please give us any details he can of this scheme? I welcome what I have heard. I want to be positive about it. I hope the Minister has taken account of all the details of my proposal but I do not care whose proposal it is. It is more important than that.

The Minister has shown no interest whatsoever in protecting jobs. He has had several opportunities, from October last year to April of this year and many announcements between. All of this has been going on while 200,000 people have lost their jobs in the past 12 months. I hope that when the Minister responds in a few moments he will shed some light on this and give us something we can all support.

The big project for Government policy has been for the bankers and bailing out the speculators. That is what the National Asset Management Agency will do. I look forward to the debate on that in September. Unfortunately, it will probably trundle through the House with the support of the voting fodder on the backbenches.

The Minister has told us over the past few days that he is acting in the public interest and that we have to make tough decisions. The Government is not acting in the public interest but in the interest of a small group of people. It has not taken tough decisions but soft, easy decisions that do not deal with the real crisis. It has been making the wrong decisions. That is what has got us where we are. We know all about that. It has nationalised Anglo Irish Bank and issued a blanket guarantee to the other banks. This is aimed at a very narrow sector. It is not fair to use taxpayers' hard-earned money to bail out that category of people.

In his April budget the Minister announced 400 extra community employment places. Those places could be taken up between two towns. Kildare and Navan, or Dundalk and Drogheda, or any couple of towns would easily have taken up 200 places each. Some towns would probably take up all 400. It is a ridiculous number to offer across the State. He also announced a ten-week training scheme. Many of us see that as bluff and bluster. It is squashing down courses that are already there, doing paperwork to put more people through to make it look as if the Government is doing something.

I would encourage the Minister if he wants to do something constructive, to use some funds from the National Pensions Reserve Fund, for example, in an enthusiastic roll-out of a school building project. That would help the construction sector, particularly if the Minister changes the rules to allow contracts to be segmented so that smaller developers could get some of that action and employ people from towns to get them back to work and get the economy moving again. I do not see that happening.

In his speech day today the Minister said: "These Estimates reflect the necessary albeit difficult expenditure measures taken by the Government over the last year while protecting as much as possible vital front line services." Would the Minister forgive me for thinking that he is not protecting vital front line services? The motion for Private Member's business last night and this evening put down by Fine Gael outlines that failure in the closure of wards and a theatre in a children's hospital. There is no efficiency there. These children must be dealt with in any event. An accountant would tell the Minister that it will cost more to deal with them in the long run. It would be more efficient to deal with the injuries and other medical difficulties these children have now rather than doing five or six procedures or major surgery later. It makes no sense whatsoever. The Government is pointing in the wrong direction. I wish the Minister would sometimes listen to the Opposition parties and some economists and evaluate what they are saying and stop listening to the fat cats and the corrupt bankers because they are leading the Government and the State in the wrong direction. It needs to change and be turned around. I hope it can be turned around soon.

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