Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

There are 435,000 people out of work in the country. Having a report prepared on the smart economy and innovation was an initiative taken by the Government, and one I welcome. It was a very good report and, broadly speaking, it is something the Labour Party would support. We might have issues about particular recommendations but by and large this is the direction in which we must go. My difficulty with the Taoiseach's answers is that I cannot put my finger on a single recommendation of this report about which the Government has done anything. The Taoiseach cannot point to a single recommendation that has been implemented. The Taoiseach keeps telling us work on recommendations is ongoing and that this agency and that agency is working on them. The Government announced the establishment of this task force in December 2008 but did not appoint it until the end of June 2009. In fairness to the task force, it reported in March 2010. There was great fanfare in respect of the launch of the task force report, as is normal in respect of the launch of reports. However, the problem we now have is that the Government does not appear to have done anything about it and everything is being long-fingered. It is a great idea. We are all for the smart economy and innovation but nothing is happening.

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