Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Neither the European Regional Development Fund, ERDF, nor the Energy Efficiency Finance Facility, EEFF, will fund local authority houses. That is a different issue. We must find the resources to do that. I recommend to the Deputy a very fine document published by the Labour Parliamentary Party last week on the housing crisis. I accept there is an issue in that regard and perhaps we could have common cause in addressing some aspects of it.

I do not accept Deputy Higgins's assertion that the recovery is not real. The recovery is happening. Unemployment is falling. Instead of heading towards the 0.5 million mark, as it was when we came into government, it is falling month on month. I hope the trend will continue. A total of 60,000 additional jobs was created last year. It is said that emigration is impacting on the figure but in fact more people are now at work. There are 1.91 million people at work, which is back to the level it was at in 2009. However, we need to do an awful lot more, which is why the Taoiseach has designated this year as the year of jobs. Getting people back to work is the most important element in providing the feeling of recovery in every household. We must continue to work at that.

In terms of the very valid point Deputy Higgins made, a lot of people have had a lot of money taken out of their pockets. We have increased taxation and people are squeezed in terms of their wage rates, in particular in the public sector. Until we get out of that situation and people have more money in their pocket we will not lift that sense of the impact on families and individuals given the awful period we have come through that has manifested itself in so many Irish households.

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