Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

When the jobs initiative was announced, I stated that it would come as a major disappointment to the 440,000 people out of work. The Government missed an opportunity to use the resources at its disposal to invest in job creation and to have a proper stimulus package that would support businesses and struggling families. Not only will the initiative announced by the Minister fail to create meaningful employment, it might make matters worse. Perhaps the measures are not included in this Finance Bill, but those the Minister announced on the day could potentially depress consumer spending and lead to an increase in unemployment levels. I say this with particular regard to the review of labour agreements.

After the announcement, the media asserted that at least something was being done and that it was better than nothing. This was the general feeling, but what has been done? Consider the detail of the Minister's first Finance Bill, which represents the Government's first opportunity to reverse some of the draconian, drastic and horrible cuts introduced by the previous Government. The Bill is nine pages long, has little detail and contains nothing substantial that will create jobs.

People who, through no fault of their own, lost their jobs in the middle of this recession or came out of college with degrees, masters or PhDs are asking for job creation and opportunities. Many people waited with anticipation for the new Government to bring a fresh approach and a new era, but many of them have been genuinely and deeply disappointed. The Bill will not significantly stem the flow of emigration. Recently, I had an opportunity to visit the Passport Office on behalf of a relation. I chatted with a number of young people who were fed up with what had happened. Despite all of the buzz and feel-good factor following yesterday's address by the President of the United States and his creed, "Yes we can", people believe they no longer can because the Government is not stepping up to help as it should. Like the programme for Government, the initiative contains no job creation targets.

It is worth reminding the House that, while the Government proposes spending €135 million on capital projects, €106 million of that is from existing allocations. There will only be additional spending of €29 million in this regard. The €29 million is to be welcomed. Donegal County Council received approximately €3 million for additional capital spending on roads it or its officials did not have an opportunity to decide on, since the National Roads Authority, NRA, told councils on which roads to spend the capital. However, it is likely that no jobs will be created by the additional money. It is a pittance. January's snow and frost caused road damage amounting to €8 million in County Donegal. An additional €3 million is being allocated to the council under this jobs initiative. I stress this point because the Government could have done a great deal and taken immediate, decisive and brave action to put people back to work while bettering the environment for people living in that community and for those travelling in and out of some of the most scenic areas in Ireland.

I do not know whether the Minister has ever had the opportunity to visit County Donegal or use Donegal Airport. It is a fantastic airport and I am delighted its public service obligation, PSO, will remain. For a peripheral county, such a service is important. We always hear about the large amount of work done by Aer Arann to fly charter flights between there and other parts of Europe, but when one leaves the airport, one is on a roller-coaster trying to dodge potholes here and ditches there while lines of cones warn people about soft verges. It is a disaster, but the frost damage has created further problems.

The Government could have used the resources of the State to invest in job creation and capital projects, to get our roads back up to scratch and to invest in our sewerage schemes and water treatment plants. The leaking pipes through which approximately 40% of all of the water in our distribution network is lost could be repaired and made fit for purpose, which would serve to reduce water charges on business. Not only must businesses pay for the water they consume, they must also pay for the 42% or 43% of water lost due to inefficiencies in the pipe network.

All of this could have been done, but there was unwillingness to increase investment in labour intensive capital projects significantly. It is nothing short of scandalous at a time when so many willing and able people in the construction sector are sitting at home on social welfare payments but want to return to work and build our communities.

The same type of thing can be said about the 20,900 new training places promised in this initiative. Of course they are welcome, and the people who will avail of those projects will deeply welcome them, but they are a far cry from the 60,000 education and training places and work placements promised by both Government parties during the general election campaign. What amplifies the problem is the fact that the total additional expenditure in this area is a meagre €11 million. Paying a mere €11 million extra for job activation measures is not acceptable.

All of this is set against the commitment to cut tens of thousands of jobs from the public service and drive down the wages of more than 300,000 of our low-paid workers who are covered by JLCs and REAs. That is what we must measure it against. I thought it was pathetic - I say that advisedly - that we had three days of debate on a jobs initiative. I would welcome three days of debate on a jobs initiative if it was actually going to create jobs, because that is what we need to be talking about, but what was announced by this Government did not warrant three days of debate. This week, we have two days of Second Stage debate on a nine-page Bill which contains four real measures, three of which I have no real problem with and one of which I have a serious problem with. However, this is not what we should be dealing with. We should be dealing with the major crisis in our country. I have already addressed the fact that we have three crises: a banking crisis, the deficit crisis, and an unemployment crisis. A nine-page Bill as the Government's major initiative is not what I and the majority of people expected.

By having this review and by lowering the wages of our low-paid workers who are covered by JLCs and REAs, we will be reducing the spending power of people who are already on very low incomes. This will create economic hardship and further poverty. It will have a devastating impact on thousands of households and on the small and medium-sized businesses that are depending on those people to survive. It is hard to believe that a Government that was elected on a platform of investing billions of euro - those are its words - in job creation and economic recovery is now proposing a jobs initiative that will not create any meaningful long-term jobs, while at the same time putting tens of thousands of public and private sector jobs at risk through its policies of crippling austerity.

See this speech in context