Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

In his Department's strategy statement, the Taoiseach highlighted a number of priorities. The top one was jobs and growth. That reflected the Fine Gael campaign slogan which was to get Ireland working. Most people would say the country's priority is jobs, jobs, jobs and jobs again if we are to have any chance of getting out of the mess we were in.

There is an element of the politics of illusion in documents like this. The illusionist uses one hand to distract the audience while the other gets on with the real business. The strategy would be a wonderful document if its noble aspirations for jobs and growth were being delivered upon. The reality, however, is that the Government's projection is that there will be no change in net employment by the end of this year. By the end of 2015, the best case scenario is that we may see a reduction of between 1% and 1.5% in the level of unemployment. The Nevin Institute says that will not materialise and there will, in fact, be an increase in the level of unemployment.

Whenever this point is put to the Taoiseach he mentions some of the, always welcome, job announcements. Of course we all welcome these. I welcome the creation of 500 jobs associated with the development of DCU. What we gain on the swings, however, we lose on the roundabout of austerity. For every job created at least the same number is lost. That has been the case since the Taoiseach and his colleagues entered Government and will continue to be the case until the end of this year, at least. This suggests that the commitment in his strategy document to create jobs and growth is not being delivered upon.

Part of the problem is the oft repeated mantra by many of the Ministers that the Government does not create jobs, it creates the conditions for creating jobs. That is the problem because no one else is going to create the jobs in the current economic climate. The banks certainly are not going to create them. Private investment is very small relative to the huge unemployment hole in our economy. The State must step in and create the jobs otherwise even the Government's own forecasts are for negligible impact on the chronic unemployment crisis.

I ask the Taoiseach if he will re-prioritise and refocus on the issue of jobs. Will he review the Government's approach to employment creation in this State? A 0% change in unemployment by the end of the year is not good enough to offer the Irish people when we are suffering from chronic mass unemployment and emigration.

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