Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy raises a number of questions. I am acutely aware of the pressure on hard-working families and this will be a very significant focus of the budget next week. The point I made about water is that it is not part of the Government take. It is a commercial semi-State company. If we took it all on balance sheet, as the Deputy advocates, and just had a company that was funded by the State, I would have to find an additional €800 million of cuts next year because the entire cost of it would be on balance sheet.

The Deputy makes a good point about the financial transaction tax. It is a matter of debate. Obviously, Ireland could not act alone on that. We had a discussion on that very point with the British Shadow Chancellor at the Labour parliamentary party meeting this week. It is a pity that Deputy Higgins is still not there as he could have participated in that.

In respect of the increase in corporation tax advocated by the Deputy, the prime focus of this Government is to create jobs and I think we have done that with great success. The unemployment rate is now 11.1% and the projection is that it will be below 10% next year. That is a sea change from the calamitous situation we inherited when we were heading to a half a million people unemployed and there was 15% plus unemployment. Since this Government came to office, we have created 76,600 net new jobs.

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