Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I can show where the jobs are. We are creating 3,000 additional jobs a month. The Deputy can look at the list of job announcements made every month by IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland to see the additional jobs being created. We have made provision in the budget to accelerate the number of the jobs that will be created. Many of the measures are targeted at the construction sector, in which there has been a very high level of unemployment. The number on the live register is declining significantly for the first time in a number of years. It is about creating jobs.

Today I am glad to see that agreement has been reached on the budget in the United States. Sensible people on both sides of the aisle in the United States House of Representatives got together and agreed a budget. Agreement on a budget had been held up for weeks by the extreme ideological voices of the Tea Party. The more I hear Deputy Clare Daly rail and shout against problems rather than provide solutions, the more I come to the conclusion that she is the Irish equivalent of the Tea Party.

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