Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, the Minister Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation issued a statement claiming that capital expenditure for his Department had been increased by €50 million and that the Government would create 50,000 new jobs in 2015. When I looked at the actual figures, I could not get over it. There was actually a reduction in capital of €4 million, not an increase. As for creating 50,000 jobs in 2015, I note that the Government has created only 47,100 net new jobs in three and a half years. There were 5,000 new jobs in the first six months of this year, while 28,000 young people have left the labour market since the Government took office. That puts the promise of 50,000 jobs into perspective.

The previous Minister spoke about some of the actions the Government is going to get involved in. One of my major arguments concerns the mismatch between the Government's ambition and the country's needs. The Minister said 118,000 houses would be insulated during the Government's term of office. There are 1.8 million houses in the State, which means the Government will not even touch 10% of that. There is funding available to do it if the Government had enough ambition. On a yearly basis, billions of euro migrate from normal retail to online sales. Most of that goes outside the State, but the Government intends to train up only 2,000 businesses. The Government speaks about stimulus on a regular basis, but I cannot get over the fact that the total capital increase in yesterday's budget was €210 million, €180 million of which will be spent on new social housing in 2015. That represents 2,000 houses, when there are 89,000 households on the housing waiting lists. If the Minister of State, Deputy Coffey, does the maths, he will see that at 2,000 houses a year, it will take over 40 years to get to the bottom of the current housing crisis.

There has been a great deal of back and forth on budgetary holes in various parties' budget alternatives, but if there is a hole it is the gaping stimulus hole in the Government's budget with regard to capital spend. Even the Government's friends in the International Monetary Fund, who are hardly champions of Keynesian policy, have stated that there is a necessity in these times for stimulus and that there is an investment efficiency in stimulus in recessionary times as it is cheaper. Yet the extra €210 million that the Government, in its infinite wisdom, has provided on a bright sunny day when the country is just turning around will create 833 new long-term jobs. That represents just 0.02% of the live register.

The low pay commission is one of the issues that is seemingly very important to the Labour Party. We are told it will happen by the end of 2015, but 300,000 workers today are working for less than the living wage, which is €11.45. The OECD has already done the research for the Government and said that Ireland is the second worst country with regard to poverty in work in the whole of the OECD. Ireland is just behind the USA, which is infamous for inequality. Given the urgency of the issue, why is the Government back-ending the commission right up against a possible general election next year?

Most of the SME measures announced in the budget are simply resuscitated existing measures which have flopped so far. It is too late for the credit guarantee scheme, which involves approximately €15 million and just 110 companies creating or maintaining just 870 jobs. The scheme was intended to create €450 million in credit and to assist 4,000 separate businesses. Again, it is an issue of ambition versus reality. Just 186 companies benefitted from the employment and investment incentive scheme last year, which is nowhere near what it should have been. The strategic banking corporation of Ireland has yet to be put in place. That one in four SMEs and one quarter of the loan balance are in arrears points again to the issue of reality versus ambition.

Tá cúrsaí sna Gaeltachtaí go huafásach faoi láthair. Le cúig bliana anuas, tá buiséad Údarás na Gaeltachta scriosta ag Fine Gael, Páirtí an Lucht Oibre agus Fianna Fáil. Sa bhliain 2007, fuair Údarás na Gaeltachta €22 milliún sa bhuiséid caipitil. Tá laghdú 74% tar éis teacht ar sin. Anois ní fhaigheann sé ach €5.6 milliún in aghaidh na bliana. Níl slad cosúil le seo feicthe againn in aon cheann de na heagraíochtaí fiontar eile, Fiontar Éireann nó an IDA. Ní féidir leis an údarás feidhmiú I gceart níos mó. Ní féidir leis a chuid dualgas a fhorlíonadh ar chor ar bith nó na scéimeanna teanga a chur i bhfeidhm. Caithfidh an Rialtas dul ar ais go dtí an Bille Airgeadais agus, ar a laghad, €3 milliún a chur leis an mbuiséad don údarás chomh tapaidh agus is féidir.

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