Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I agree with the Deputy that we have a huge unemployment problem. There is no doubt about that. It has been made immeasurably worse by the collapse of the construction sector, and therefore a huge segment of construction workers, with varying levels of skill, are out of work. That is the huge mountain this Government must try to scale.

I cannot agree with the Deputy if he is saying that the private sector has failed and we should rely on the State companies. It is not one or the other. We live in a mixed economy. State companies have made a significant contribution to employment, as well as discharging their responsibilities on the supply of energy, telecoms, postal services, cutting turf and so on. Without the role of the multinational sector and without the role of thousands of small and medium sized enterprises, however, our unemployment situation would be a great deal worse. I cannot agree with the Deputy that it is either-or, but I agree with him that wherever we can extract value and cause employment to be created, that ought to be our target.

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