Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Yes. A serious effort is being made to bring in jobs. That is why the Tánaiste and Minister for trade has already met all of the European ambassadors here and all of the non-European ambassadors. The Minister for Finance, other Ministers and I meet political and business interests outside Ireland in respect of continuing to put emphasis on the attractiveness of this country in terms of its location for investment because of the flexibility of our workforce, our proven record and our entrance to a single market of 500 million customers.

The Deputy will realise that the programme for Government is for the period of Government. This Government is now in situ just more than 80 days and already it has made serious decisions in respect of the banking problem where we had six dysfunctional banks. We have introduced a jobs initiative which is not to the extent we would wish but it is constrained by virtue of the economic circumstances in which we find ourselves, and the Government is now carrying out a serious analysis of the ways public money is spent. That comprehensive spending review will be finished by September. The Minister for Finance will commence his bilateral discussions with individual Ministers in respect of the preparation for the 2012 budget.

It would be very easy to stand here and say it is easy to govern if one has billions of euro to lash out. In the case of making decisions about priorities, these are matters that Government will consider in terms of the programmes that should be abolished, the programmes that should be extended, and the programmes that should be kept in the interests of fairness in society and of fairness to the people. In other words, in facing into this economic challenge the country faces, it has to be demonstrated that there are decisions being made that impact on everybody and that everybody has a part to play in that.

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