Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister's reference to the iPhone. I presume this means he does not support his colleague's call for legislation to ban the full use of iPhones and iPads. Stimulus works, and so will austerity to get to a deficit reduction. There is no doubt about that. The big debate is which is the least painful and best path to choose. I have a very different view from that of the Government but mine is valid and is held and implemented by governments throughout the world. Stimulus does work. The Government has put all of its eggs in one basket. On average, 100 jobs were created every month last year. While any job created is to be welcomed because it presents an opportunity to remain in Ireland or move away from the deep depths of debt, the figure of 100 jobs every month means that it will take the Government 83 years to reach its target of 100,000 jobs, if things stay as they are. I hope nothing like that will ever happen, but we need a stimulus in the economy. There is no need to throw money at projects, as happened under the previous Government, but the National Pensions Reserve Fund has money that has to be mobilised to get people back to work and help to lift the level of economic activity in the State. I encourage the Minister to do this. However, many people have offered different opinions. I know that under the rules of politics, one's job is to ridicule or rubbish the proposals coming from the other side. However, political parties on this side of the House have offered genuine, serious proposals, as have people outside the House, which should be adapted to get the country moving again.

See this speech in context