Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with Deputy Boyd Barrett on one thing, that jobs should be the priority. As he said himself on four occasions, it is about jobs, jobs, jobs and jobs. We will not have a country we can be proud of and face with courage into the future unless we deal with our problems here. They are our public finances, the structures of the way a number of Departments have operated in the past, and a relentless drive to deal with jobs.

As I said to Deputy Ó Fearghaíl, it is a fact that between 2008 and 2011, 250,000 jobs were lost in the private sector. In the last 12 months, 12,000 jobs have been created in that sector. It is a trend moving in the right direction; it is not by any means where we need to be but we are headed in that direction.

Last week I visited Fleetmatics at Tallaght. This is an Irish company with its global headquarters here in Ireland. It currently has GPS locating systems on 300,000 vehicles worldwide and it is going to expand its business to a truly global sense in the very near future. That company employs in the main IT specialist operators. I was in Sky's Dublin office, which currently employs 490 people and that will increase to more than 1,000 by the end of summer - 900 was the initial figure but it expects to beat 1,000. They are all young, energetic people dealing with what they see as a very competitive situation here in Ireland where the company has set up its own headquarters. Indeed, the humble potato, with a turnover of €100 million in Tayto Park in Ashbourne in County Meath, saw 78 new jobs announced last week in the adjoining facility. These are people who make decisions at this time to invest money and to employ people. We want to see more of that. I was in two places over the last week, one employed 21 people and another employed 10. They are small operators but they have the confidence to make the decisions. I am sure Deputy Boyd Barrett wants this as much I do.

I do not deal in illusions, I must deal with reality. I heard the economist, Mr. Collins from the Nevin Economic Research Institute, say the one thing we can be sure of is that economists will be wrong. They hold a very different view from IBEC, which is projecting a 1.8% growth rate for this year, ahead of most other organisations referring to the potential of the country. If markets are pricing in the fact that Ireland is now in a very different position than it was, that is good. It is a sign of positivity and confidence and that has been reflected in the fact Bank of Ireland was able to sell €1 billion worth of paper recently, which was a big change. The banks are moving to a point of being able to compete on the market without State guarantees, which we hope will end in the period ahead, and enable them return to the markets.

The Deputy is right when he says it is not a case of the Government creating jobs.

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