Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

It is perfectly obvious to everyone that 440,000 people on the live register, of which approximately 130,000 may be working part time, is far too many. The Government has set out its programme and plan to deal with that. Last week, we published the firstly quarterly report of the Government's action plan to improve the atmosphere in the environment in which jobs and opportunities can take place.

The Deputy's figures project a view that Government is only about austerity and cutting back. As I stated earlier to Deputy Boyd Barrett, we must deal with our problems because no one else will deal with them for us. The economic growth and agenda set by Government is based on creating jobs and job opportunities. If the Deputy cannot acknowledge that Paypal, Eli Lilly, Microsoft, HP, Baxter, Allergan and many other companies are making serious investments in this country, resulting in the creation of a serious number of jobs, then he is living on a different planet.

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