Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Any plan to create jobs must be predicated on a return to growth in the Irish economy. The quickest way to achieve this is to take three steps: bring order to the public finances; make the economy more competitive; and restructure the banking industry. We have been providing further resources for training, education and job retention. The bottom line is that, in a small open economy, restoring economic growth is the best means by which we can save, maintain and grow jobs.

Growing jobs in the teeth of the worst international recession in seven decades is the context in which the Leader of the Opposition is speaking. It is time for everyone in the House to accept and adapt policies that ensure growth returns to the economy sooner rather than later. That can only be achieved by focusing on the three major areas about which I have spoken. We must restore order to the public finances, increase economic competitiveness so people can compete in the new circumstances in which we find ourselves – we have improved competitiveness by 7% in respect of unit labour costs alone this year vis-À-vis our European competitors – and ensuring more credit is available in the economy in the aftermath of the biggest seismic shock in the financial world in modern economic history.

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