Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

Let us concentrate on what has to be done. We all know there is a huge and unacceptable level of unemployment in this country and that there is a huge level of emigration of young people in particular from this country. We have to create jobs and attract investment in Ireland. I do not want to exaggerate what we have done and what we are doing but since this Government was formed this time last year, almost to the day, the country's economy has returned to growth for the first time in four years, we have seen in the last quarter an increase in the number of people who are at work for the first time since 2007, and we have stabilised the economic situation in the country. What we now have to do is to move on from that to bring in investment to get jobs created, and we have set out our strategy for that.

It is not a case that we are operating in hope. We have set down a very clear strategy about how we are going to do that. It is contained in the action plan for jobs that we published. In respect of people who have lost or are losing work, we have set down a strategy about how we will move people who are out of work back into employment through education and training, job experience and so on through the Pathways to Work initiative. We have announced repeatedly a range of measure which are aimed at ensuring funding and credit are available to small and medium-sized businesses in order that they can create jobs.

One of the biggest difficulties we have had in recent times in regard to attracting investment - I know this to be the case because in the course of my work as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade I talk to people who are contemplating investing in this country - is not uncertainty about the future of the Irish economy but uncertainty about the future of the European economy. That is why we on this side of the House and in government say that we need to pass the fiscal stability treaty in order that-----

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