Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)

People cannot eat every section of the jobs action plan, nor will the Pathways to Work scheme pay people's mortgages. What people want to see are real jobs and not some kind of self-created score card the Government can tick off and feel it is succeeding. It is disastrous that we have 200,000 people who are long-term unemployed. At the personal level, this means a significant number of individuals whose confidence and ability to engage with society is reduced. Their feeling of self-worth is reduced and they find it soul-destroying not to be able to engage with the economy. From an economic perspective, the skills and experience of these individuals are not being harnessed. No matter the lengths the Government goes to with its score card, it is failing the people with regard to long-term unemployment.

A figure of 5,000 places was mentioned with regard to the JobBridge programme and it was suggested there will be 1,000 extra places. However, this number - 1,000 - is the same as the number of people who will emigrate between now and next Thursday. The proposals are completely inadequate to deal with the problem. The Government should instead look at the cost base for start-up companies, deal with upward-only rents and consider progressive taxes, targeted reductions of energy costs, reductions in red tape and reductions in insurance costs. It should also look at job activation programmes that have been used in Germany. As I mentioned earlier, it should decide that the banking industry will orient credit around the needs of business, rather than the economy being oriented around the needs of banks. Will the Government come out and indicate that it will introduce a multi-billion euro Government stimulus plan to kick-start the economy?

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