Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

Section 3 and the Bill in general deals, in part, with the implementation of the jobs initiative announced a few weeks ago by the Government. The initiative is pathetically inadequate against almost half a million people unemployed. This was recognised by the Government itself in the way it dampened down expectations leading up to the announcement of the initiative. It was downscaled from a major jobs budget.

The changes in PRSI made by the Ministers for Finance and Social Protection and proposed in the Bill would mean a reduced income for the Exchequer of the order of €190 million in 2012 and €183 million in 2013. The Minister averred that this will create jobs. She said there was evidence. Where is the evidence and what is it? Deputy Seamus Healy put his finger on the problem when he said that everything being attempted here is countermanded by the general policy of the Government continuing the disastrous policies of Fianna Fáil and the Green Party at the diktat of the EU, ECB and IMF. Slashing the ability of working and poor people to purchase goods and services slashes jobs. What evidence does the Minister have that employers, who would be relevant to this section, will not simply increase their profits rather than increase the number of people at work?

The Minister for Finance, when pressed on a number of occasions by me, resolutely refused to give us any targets for job creation, or even jobs maintenance, in respect of his jobs initiative. Can the Minister for Social Protection give us such figures today? What studies have been done to back up what she says, that this significant reduction in income to the State will result in jobs created? At least part of the raid on the pension funds is to pay for this reduction in PRSI. We have no problem with raiding the pension pots of millionaires and billionaires but we do have a problem with attacking the pension funds of ordinary working people and being a disincentive. We need to see the evidence and any projections the Minister may have.

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