Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I am trying to get a measure of the commitments given by Fine Gael and Labour, the parties who make up this Government, before the election. The Taoiseach said that job creation would be his number one priority and promised to create 100,000 jobs over five years through the NewERA programme. He told voters he would invest €7 billion in the development of the State's water services, telecommunications infrastructure and energy industry. The Tánaiste proposed a €500 million jobs fund and a strategic investment bank with a capacity of €2 billion from the National Pensions Reserve Fund.

In terms of trying to coordinate the work of the Government, and the Government seems to be quite uncoordinated and speaking with many different voices at this time, have those promises been abandoned? Have they been made subservient to the IMF and EU sovereignty over this part of the island or is a serious effort being made to bring in jobs as the only sure cure for this recession?

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