Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I always welcome a bit of passion in the House. Whatever about unparliamentary language which is worth avoiding, I welcome anyone who is passionate about his or her politics.

I have listened to the debate and, to be honest, the contributions I have heard from the Opposition have been fanciful. No one has recorded the situation of the economy we inherited when we entered government and the truth of the situation. This is true for Deputy Gerry Adams just as it is for Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett or Deputy Micheál Martin. The Government before us was spending almost 50% more than it was taking in revenue. Deputy Gerry Adams chooses to portray dealing with this reality as austerity. No country in the world can continue to spend 50% more than it takes in revenue and think it will survive. The reason was clear for everyone to see; no one would lend to us in this condition. Any willingness to lend to the Government had folded and in the face of this the previous Government had to go cap in hand to the European Union for a bailout. That is the reality.

On the employment front, we were losing 100,000 jobs a year. They were being wiped from the economy. They were good decent jobs. We were imploding as an economic unit. That was the reality we faced. This must colour one's analysis of the options which faced the Government, but I see absolutely no sense of understanding of the problem we had to confront. We had a jobs crisis and also had to confront a budget which was in complete disarray. We had banks which were unable to lend and a real problem because the previous Government had given a guarantee to bondholders. That was the situation with which we had to deal.

I come here in good faith. We have not done everything right, by no means, but I cannot sit here and listen to Opposition spokespersons pretend the creation of 72,000 additional jobs in the economy in the past five quarters is not a real transformation and change in the situation we faced as a Government. I do not care what county one represents, every region in the economy has enjoyed job growth in the past 12 months. We see growth in tourism, agriculture, construction for the first time, and all of the high-tech industries which we recognise are crucial for long-term growth. We also see growth in the traditional food sector, which is important. We are beginning to see the strength and ingenuity of workers and enterprises in turning a very disastrous situation into new opportunities.

I listened to Deputy Micheál Martin state we had no plans, but in his very next sentence he condemned out of hand the Action Plan for Jobs which was published last week and which he has had ample opportunity to study. He did not consider the impact of any of the proposals made. All we heard from him was a smart-alecky analysis and he accuses the Government of spin. The reality we faced was that we did not have a bucket full of money, as Sinn Féin sometimes pretends we do, which we could throw at the economic crisis and hope it would refloat all boats. We had to painstakingly roll up our sleeves and look at every Department to see what each could do to transform our employment setting and that is what we did. We sought to enlist every Department to confront the one central crisis at the heart of this issue. Whether one is concerned about poverty, marginalisation or loneliness, the lack of employment and the number of households without work were and continue to be the central challenge. We addressed it by getting every Department to face up to it and under the eye of the Taoiseach, they were made accountable quarter by quarter for delivering actions which would make a difference, and we have made a difference.

One can ask what is the connection between the changes we made to access finance and job creation or the connection between the reforms we made in competitiveness in the business environment and job creation. One will not be able to trace an exact route, but the reality is this is now ranked, not by stockbrokers but by those who want to invest, as one of the best countries in which to invest. This is also ranked as one of the top ten countries in which to start a small or large business. We have created an environment in which employment can be created and can see dynamic companies grow. I have the privilege of travelling abroad with these companies and whatever one's ideology is, one would be absolutely proud to see the quality of workmanship, intelligence and technology applied by Irish companies to create solutions for people in other markets and in winning jobs at home through their ingenuity. That is what is happening.

We cannot state we have created these jobs and I have never stated we have done so. I have always stated the heroes of this recovery are the workers and enterprises that will make these changes. I can provide many examples of companies faced with closure which confronted problems and turned themselves around and produced new markets which are growing employment. We must encourage more of this. I listened, hoping to hear during the course of the debate some fresh ideas of what we could be doing, but there was none. To be fair, Deputy Gerry Adams suggested a whole lot of taxes he would like to see introduced. Fair enough; that is grand, but there were no ideas on sources of the dynamism we were missing or the sectors we could target in which we could do better.

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