Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

Unfortunately, the relentless loss of jobs in the domestic economy will continue as a result of the Government's policies. In response to a question asked by my colleague, Deputy Daly, the Minister for Social Protection said it is expected that there will be an additional 45,200 net redundancies this year, unfortunately. The Minister added that there will be a further 40,000 redundancies in 2013. Incredibly, the Department of Social Protection is making money available to community employment schemes to provide for the redundancy of community employment workers. How does that square with the Tánaiste's pronouncements on everything the Government will do for the unemployed? I advise the Tánaiste and the Labour Party to be careful about where they are going with this. Perhaps the Tánaiste should pass that advice on to the Minister, Deputy Burton. Certain newspapers in this State that are owned by billionaires-----

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