Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Minister's officials pointed to this anomaly at a pre-budget briefing. We do not have growth, but the Minister is claiming an improved position in terms of employment and unemployment. The ABC of economics says if we have more people working, it is contributing to GDP. How can the Minister claim there is an improvement in the employment position when we do not have the growth to match it? The explanation is not what the Minister has just told us about pharmaceuticals; it has more to do with the fact that many of the jobs it is claimed are being created are not real jobs. People are being counted as employed if they are not on the live register but on schemes and through the various ways the Minister has created to massage the employment figures. They are not real jobs; they are not properly paid and contribute nothing to GDP. That explains the anomaly.

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