Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

The Minister has chosen to sign up to the cutback and austerity agenda and in so doing he ensures economic contraction and job losses, and this will mean an increase in social welfare demand. It is hard to fathom that he cannot join these dots and recognise the consequences of the policy he is pursuing. He had no difficulty understanding them from the Opposition benches.

For all his talk about job creation, his record is deplorable. There are increasing numbers on the live register and an increased level of long-term and youth unemployment despite record levels of emigration. Jobless people wonder whether they will ever work again. Ironically, the Minister wears the 23,000 job cuts in the public sector as a badge of honour. He has no idea what jobs will go, what front line services will be most damaged or what the so-called "savings" to the Exchequer will be.

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