Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)

To implement something such as this there must be two criteria: it must create jobs and it must not push people into poverty. There are some 100,000 working poor in the State. Having a job in itself provides no insulation against poverty. Models exist within the Department of Finance into which Ministers, such as Deputy Bruton, can input figures which give readings of what job creation is to be expected. If the Minister intends to proceed with the policy outlined, how many jobs will be created? How many people will be pushed into poverty? The systems are in place for the Minister to analyse that much.

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