Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)

It also stands in stark contrast to some of the communications being sent by a number of Deputies. Straight after the announcement of the jobs initiative, Fine Gael and Labour Deputies ran back to their constituents. Some local newspapers are festooned with headlines about the thousands of jobs coming to Meath, Offaly and Mayo. Somewhere along the line, the truth is either not being told by the Minister, Deputy Noonan, or by the Deputies speaking with their constituents. There is a blatant disparity between the facts provided in the Chamber.

What the Deputies did not say was that many of the new jobs and funds will come from existing schemes. Many of the jobs will only be created for a period of two or three months. In many cases, Peter's job is being robbed to employ Paul. The Deputies did not mention in their press statements that the actual number of additional jobs contained in the document is approximately 400. They did not mention that, in the jaws of the most devastating recession ever faced by the State, the initiative will only add 15 jobs in a county like Meath, for example. The comparison between need and provision is shocking.

According to the ESRI's figures, 500 young people emigrate every four days. The jobs initiative will stop four days of emigration. For the rest of the year, it will be business as usual. The jobs initiative is a PR initiative virtually free of substance. It momentarily raised the hopes of hundreds of thousands of people and quickly dashed them. For this reason, the jobs initiative is contemptible. In recent weeks, I have spoken to a large number of enterprise organisations and community groups. Their muted welcome to the document was in desperate hope rather than in confidence. Enterprise organisations are putting on a brave face in an effort to buoy expectations in the market.

The Minister has told us there is no other option and that the straitjacket of austerity bequeathed to the Government by the former Fianna Fáil Government stops any movement. I would suggest that the strictures are self-imposed. Sinn Féin has identified €2 billion in the National Pensions Reserve Fund, NPRF, that could be used as a kick start to the economy. The Government has told us it has no room to manoeuvre and that Europe will prevent anything else, but there is a compulsive desire on the Fine Gael and Labour benches to prove themselves to be the best Europeans in the class. Sometimes, it is difficult to know whether the parties opposite are working in Ireland's interests or in the interests of Europe. Are they on the side of the core European countries? I will provide a number of examples to prove this point. Fine Gael and Labour forget that being pro-European does not mean slavishly following the core European states. Rather, it means creating a sustainable Europe that promotes the interests of the core and periphery and does not pit them against each other.

Today is a case in point. Deputy Breen informed the House that the Minister, Deputy Noonan, will meet the French Minister, Ms Christine Lagarde, who has just announced that she is seeking the position of the managing director of the IMF. She vigorously opposed a reduction in the exorbitant interest rate being forced on Ireland. This interest rate is pushing Ireland off the default cliff. Ms Lagarde has also said Ireland should increase its corporation tax rate. Many within the foreign direct investment sector have said that this corporation tax rate is a key competitive advantage for the State, and any change in it will cause major unemployment. It is mind-boggling that the Minister of State, Deputy Creighton, has said, despite this, that she believes Ms Lagarde would be an "excellent candidate". She stated: "[S]he's eminently qualified, and if she's nominated, we're likely to support her". She is suggesting that we support a candidate who is working contrary to Ireland's interests and whose interests are incongruent with ours. If Fine Gael and the Labour Party support this individual in seeking that position, they are themselves working contrary to Irish interests.

It is time the Government woke up to the harsh reality that the interests of the core European states are not necessarily ours. If there is a gap between the interests of Ireland and those of the core European states, the Government is mandated to support our interests in Ireland. Over the last three years, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party have implemented unprecedented austerity measures at the behest of the core European nations and the ECB. This has caused massive pain to the weakest in society. It has reduced the effectiveness of our health service and education system and pushed more than half a million people into unemployment and emigration. The austerity measures have caused our economy to flatline. The supposed goal of bringing down our bond interest rates has not actually happened. Returning to the bond markets before 2012 under the current policies would be very difficult.

This jobs initiative, and the accompanying Finance Bill, is a child of these failed policies. As a result, they will effect little if any long-term mitigation of the core problems in Irish society.

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