Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)

I strenuously disagree with those who claim this initiative is a modest programme, a start, or that it is the first step in a long road. It is none of these things. It is a mixed bag of uncoordinated policies which does not bring any cohesion to the jobs crisis. It simply represents furtherance of the policies already in existence. It offers no shred of hope to the almost 500,000 people who are unemployed, whose talent is wasted and who have worked their whole lives but who will not be employed on the many important tasks which must be done. This is apart from financial cost to society in terms of lost revenue and social welfare payments.

It should go without saying that there cannot be an economic recovery without putting people to work. Sadly, there is no measure in this proposal which does this. Even the title has been downgraded. It no longer has any pretence at being a job creation programme; it is a programme to create the conditions to create jobs. This is nonsense. It is simply a continuance of a low tax, low wages economy in the vain hope of some export-led or tourism-led recovery, which is laughable in the context of the world economy.

Let us consider such measures as the removal of the airline tax which has been much lauded as an important contribution. This measure exposes it somewhat. The last Government reduced the tax but it did not have a knock-on effect on the number of bookings. The idea that people in Britain, whose living standards are being decimated by the Tories, will suddenly flock to Ireland because of the elimination of a €3 tax simply does not add up. This measure will not create one single extra job. It is more likely to line the pockets of Mr. O'Leary than anything else.

The measures in the plan are a far cry from the references to the smart economy, innovation, high-skill jobs in industry and so on. Generally speaking, the only measures identified are in the lower paid sectors of the economy and the area of training. A stark warning should be heeded when one considers the elimination of the world-leading industries that operated here, such as SR Technics, the jobs of which were simply gone overnight. Those people were given access to a so-called training fund and to the EU globalisation fund for several months. That began in February and the money will run out in October but it will make no impact in terms of their being upskilled into the economy again.

If one strips away this initiative, one is left with the economic crisis being used to pin the wages and conditions that were fought for over decades under the pretence that this will somehow stimulate economic growth and deliver private sector investment to save the day. I state emphatically that this will not happen and it is completely the wrong way to go about it.

The private sector is incapable of leading the recovery. Let us consider the figures from recent years. Actually, what has taken place is an effective strike of capital, whereby private sector investment has reduced from €50 billion in 2007 to €17 billion last year. This is the gap. To tinker with such measures as halving employer PRSI and reducing VAT will not bridge that gap. The only way to deal with the scale of the jobs crisis is through a vast, State-led stimulus programme which could put people back to work.

Despite what has been said, inaccurately, about Governments not creating jobs, the reality is that the Government and the State is the largest employer. Some 300,000 people are directly employed in the public sector, a further 40,000 people work in semi-State companies and one third of all public expenditure goes on private contracts, not to mind the indirect spin-offs and jobs created in the private sector because of State and public sector investment.

The fact that those in favour of this programme are reduced to crowing about €30 million for school buildings is embarrassing in the context of the gap that exists. The idea that this will deal with school building needs does not add up. What will happen to those schools when no extra teachers are being employed and there is a cap on SNA resources and so on? There will be a handful of new schools with no extra staff to work in them.

Some €60 million has been thrown at the roads, which is fine; there is nothing especially wrong with that. However, hundreds of buses are being taken out of the public transport network in Dublin. This is completely wrong. There was the option of delivering an emergency public works programme but the Government has chosen not to do this. The only way forward is to go after those who have money and to consider such options as the wealth tax or, perish the thought, demanding that big business should contribute somewhat more in terms of corporation tax and to use the resources to spearhead a radical campaign of infrastructure projects. The Government has chosen not to do this. Instead, we have the ESRI stating that such projects as the metro north should not go ahead. This does not stand up to any serious examination. Metro north is a crucial infrastructure project and we should seize the initiative and deliver it. What we have here is a race to the bottom, a transfer of wealth away from workers to employers.

Everyone here moaned about the universal the social charge. That is in place and the lowest paid people pay it. What does the Government do then? It reduces the level of employer PRSI. Employer social insurance in Ireland is one of the lowest in Europe or internationally but the Government has decided to halve it. We are halving it for the lowest paid workers which will only incentivise low pay. Even if an employer were inclined to pay above €365, he or she would be deterred from doing so. It will not create one single extra job. When this is tied in with the reduction in registered employment agreements, REAs, and spurious training programmes which give people a pittance above their dole payments, one is left with nothing. There will not be one single job created out of this scenario. This will only succeed in the transfer of a further share of the national wealth out of the pockets of workers, who would spend it, and into the hands of employers. It is an indictment of the poor record and betrayal of which the Government is guilty.

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