Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

He now estimates that over that period it will have grown - if we are lucky - by 0.4%. That is a prediction of 5.5% versus a reality of 0.4% growth in the economy. We have had little or no growth over the past two years and the forecast for next year has now been downgraded for the third time since the Minister came to office. The predicted growth rates of 2% and 3% are always for next year or the year after, but they never seem to arrive. The economy today is approximately €5 billion smaller than the Minister said it would be at this time when he came to office.

It goes without saying that the weak external environment has been a drag on our exports. That fact, alongside a struggling domestic economy, has resulted in an overall economy that remains fragile and largely flat. Where the Government has scored best is on the public finances. On coming to office, the Minister predicted that the deficit at the end of this year would be 7.2%, and it is now going to come in at approximately 7.3%, which is welcome. Fianna Fáil welcomes the fact that the reduction on the deficit remains on target. I am sure both Ministers will acknowledge that the progress in the public finances is not limited to their tenure in the Departments but is also due to the work of the Minister's predecessor in the latter years of the previous Government.

Our deficit, while still high, is continuing to come down. The achievement of a deficit below 5% in the current year is an important step towards achieving the milestone of a deficit of less than 3% by the end of next year. However, there has been a marked difference in how the Government has gone about bringing about that adjustment. The measures it has taken to date have unquestionably been regressive. They have targeted those on low and middle incomes in particular, and these people have borne the brunt of the budgets, while the wealthiest in the country have been asked to contribute precious little.

There has undoubtedly been an improvement in the jobs market in recent months, and that is welcome. As far as I am concerned, every new job, whether a part-time or a full-time job, is good news. However, we all accept that the level of unemployment in this country remains a national crisis and the scale of the task ahead is immense. Let us look at the facts. The official measure of unemployment is the CSO quarterly household survey. According to its latest figures, the number of people officially unemployed has fallen since March 2011 by less than 7,000, from more than 307,000 to more than 300,000. Over the same period, the number of people in employment has increased by 12,700, and the total now stands at 1.866 million. It is true that the more recent data is more encouraging and, hopefully, a real dent can be put on unemployment numbers in the year ahead.

However, this is all a far cry from the promise of 100,000 net new jobs we heard from the Government on coming into office. Job creation in the private sector has played a role in the reduction in the number on the live register, but so too has forced emigration. In the last two years for which we have full data, 2011 and 2012, almost 170,000 people emigrated. Of those, almost 90,000 were Irish nationals. No town or village in the country has been left unaffected by the scourge of emigration. The harsh reality is that the Government is actively encouraging people to emigrate. I have a letter here that was sent by the Department of Social Protection to somebody on the live register who was formerly employed in construction. The letter tells him about a job vacancy in his area, not in Cork, Limerick or Dublin, but in Canada. This is a letter from the Government - from the Department of Social Protection - to an individual who is looking for a job in this country.

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