Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Most people would accept that the unemployment crisis is getting worse. It does not give us any joy to come in here and talk about the difficulties facing people who are unemployed. No one receiving €188 a week wants to be in that situation. Most of the people I have spoken to in my constituency do not want to face the prospect of not getting a job. We have wronged these people, because they were promised change. They are constantly being told that their situation is a priority, but we have not seen it being dealt with. That is how we wrong those people daily. One of the difficulties for most of the people I talk to about unemployment is the lack of hope. That is the crisis. People eagerly turn on their televisions or listen to their radios and hear people talking about this or that coming down the track, but the next week - or the month after, or six months after - they are in the same situation. The constituency I represent has one of the highest rates of unemployment in the country, like that of my colleague, Deputy Mac Lochlainn from Donegal. That is not the fault of the people who live in that area. We have two Ministers and a backbench Deputy in the area but the jobs are not being delivered. In all the years I have been active in the area I have not heard anyone talk about getting a crisis management group together to see what they can do for jobs in the area. The Government is not putting forward any plan.

The Government promised change and said it would revitalise the economy, repeatedly stating that job creation was one of the main priorities. Despite this, it is quite obvious that the process of austerity and debt repayment is its main priority, not jobs. We have not seen the promised 100,000 jobs. The Government has pursued cutbacks and austerity policies with such conviction that over the past year 30,000 jobs have been lost in the public sector, including those of nurses, doctors and teachers. Economic growth has been minuscule and the unemployment crisis has deepened. If job creation is the Government's number one priority, why is it that emigration and the resilience of some of our SMEs have had a bigger impact in reducing unemployment rates than the Government's policy? It is a damning indictment of its performance to date. Most people would accept that the Government has failed to address the scale of the problem facing our people and to invest in job creation. It does not make sense to people that we are not using the funding available in the National Pensions Reserve Fund as a stimulus package for jobs. It does not add up. That money was supposed to be put aside for a rainy day. We have had winters, not just rainy days, over the past few years, yet the Government in its wisdom has decided not to invest the money in a job stimulus package.

Jobs should be the Government's number one priority. Getting people back to work will reduce the deficit, sustain public services and contribute to resolving the debt issue. We have seen unemployment get worse and worse. State employers need to respect the rights of workers. The Government has criticised employers such as Vita Cortex for the growing trend of leaving workers in the cold, but the workers in IBRC were given an agreement on a redundancy package and now the State, through its new legislation, is walking away from that agreement. We cannot give out to employers in the private sector and at the same time turn our backs on workers. If nothing else comes out of this debate, the Minister might at least examine that area. We are tabling this motion on a positive basis. We want to get a discussion going on unemployment.

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