Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour)

I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this plan. Obviously the plan does not happen in isolation and relates to a number of different strategies, some of which have attracted criticism just as the jobs initiative had originally. That jobs initiative was launched almost a year ago. Figures recently published indicate there were 6,000 additional jobs in the hotel and catering sector which had benefited from the reduction in VAT. The people want to see these sorts of decisive measures taken by the Government and the connectivity between the measures in terms of the pensions levy and the result. Regarding this jobs plan, the Government, which is leading the country, needs to come up with a narrative about why we are doing this and where we want to go.

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