Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)

Before the general election, Fine Gael and the Labour Party called for a jobs stimulus plan to kick-start the economy. After the election they spoke about a jobs budget which has now been downgraded to a modest jobs initiative. I agree that it should be called modest. These proposals are very modest. The figure we have heard is, in effect, 10,000 jobs. This will hardly make a dent in the number - 440,000 - officially unemployed, not to mention the many thousands unofficially unemployed.

The Government is committed to cutting 20,000 jobs in public services, with a knock-on effect in the private sector of at least 5,000 job losses. The IDA has always calculated that the creation of one productive job leads to the creation of a further three. The loss of one productive job will, obviously, have the opposite effect of causing the loss of a further three. Therefore, the figure of 5,000 could be much greater.

The deflation of the economy through massive austerity tax measures in the past two years is a key factor in the high rise in the level of unemployment. I agree with the Tánaiste, Deputy Eamonn Gilmore, that Fianna Fáil Members should hang their heads in shame every time they come into the Chamber. In fact, they should wear sackcloth because they were the ones who brought us to this position.

What will be the effect of a further three years of austerity measures? We will have minimum economic growth - the best possible scenario is one of stagnation. The rate of growth in GDP will remain at approximately 2%, while in the case of GNP it will be 0.5% to 1%. Moreover, the best possible scenario depends on the continuation of economic recovery internationally and growth in world trade, which is not guaranteed. The other issue is whether we can meet IMF-EU targets, which is also not guaranteed, as it depends on growth being achieved. This will mean even deeper austerity being demanded.

The idea of a job creation programme which this initiative is certainly not and talk about creating jobs while the key thrust of Government policy is massive austerity amount to a contradiction. We cannot deal with the problems associated with mass unemployment and emigration while continuing to deflate the economy. Not one country has got out of recession by deflating its economy. The first step of any serious strategy to tackle the jobs crisis would be to fundamentally break with the idea that we can cut the deficit by making cuts. It would also require breaking with the crazy idea that the resources available such as the National Pensions Reserve Fund cannot be used to stimulate the economy but can only be used to pour further billions of euro into zombie banks. Unless the Government is prepared to break with the policy of austerity and pouring billions of euro into a black hole, all that can be done is what the Government has done, namely, come to the Chamber and through sleight of hand move figures around in capital programmes and bring in another crazy levy on pension funds, while claiming there will be no more new taxes.

With regard to pensions, there was a clever sleight of hand today when the Labour Party announced that people were receiving big tax incentives owing to measures brought forward by Fianna Fáil. Many workers, such as those in Guinness, were conned into taking out pension plans to protect their futures when they retired and they will now be affected by this measure. It is a con job and those on the Government benches know it.

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