Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

Having neglected the jobs issue since even before the start of the recession, I was interested to see that during the month, two and half years into his term of office, the Taoiseach met the heads of the State agencies responsible for job creation. In a matter of weeks, and just in time for the start of the Dáil session, a jobs document was launched. I desperately want to believe that 300,000 jobs will be created over the next five years, and I desperately want to see that jobs document and launch being different from all of the other launches we had in the past on innovation, the smart economy and all of the other fine documents that emerged from Government which were then ignored as the publicity surrounding them began to dry up.

Will the Taoiseach accept that if jobs are to be created in a serious way, he will have to adopt the type of proposals advanced by the Labour Party? He rightly stated that the issue of creating jobs and economic recovery is bound up with the other two pillars of our economic problems, namely, the banking crisis and the public finances. Therefore, will he accept the proposal being made by the Labour Party since the very beginning of the year for the establishment of a strategic investment bank, which would provide the type of credit to small and medium-sized businesses to generate jobs and ensure that finance is available for the type of infrastructure projects that might get people back to work in the short term?

Is the Taoiseach prepared to take up the type of proposals that the Labour Party put forward in the area of tourism; the type of proposals advanced by Deputy Sherlock on the food industry; the proposals published by Deputy McManus on alternative energies; and the type of proposals advanced by Deputy Quinn on labour market interventions and the interface between getting people back to work, up-skilling and using the education and training system to ensure that people have new opportunities available to them and use the period of time when they are out of work to up-skill? It is one matter to publish a document and to give the impression that 300,000 jobs will be created. It is quite another matter to adopt the policies.

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