Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

Clearly, they have not become obsessed with jobs because unfortunately, the initiatives are not making any impact whatsoever. I put it to the Taoiseach the initiatives the Government has taken have contributed to the worsening of the position. At its most basic, the decision to reduce the capital investment programme resulted in a net loss of 8,000 construction jobs in labour-intensive capital projects, which is something that could have been avoided. The increase in VAT only further dampened consumer demand in what already was a weak domestic economy. Moreover, some of the initiatives that led to increased redundancy costs for employers constituted a further disincentive to job creation and to employment. Above all, the failure to create any pressure on the banking sector to release funding to the SME sector, as evidenced by all reports and analysis, including that produced recently by Mr. John Trethowan in the credit review committee, gives further evidence regarding initiatives and a policy direction that have made this situation worse.

The final statistic comes from the Minister for Finance, who in April of this year revised downwards significantly his predictions from one year ago of employment until 2015. Last year, the Government predicted net job creation from 2011 to 2015 of 101,000 but this year it predicts a figure of 61,000----

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