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

I certainly do but I would also say there is tangible improvement occurring. There are now 105,000 more people at work since we started the Action Plan for Jobs. That is 105,000 people's lives back on track. It is also 105,000 people who are contributing on average €20,000 per year into the Exchequer in terms of savings, which amounts to €2 billion available to the Exchequer to deal with many pressing problems.

As the Deputy will be aware, 2015 was written down for another year of cuts, had the troika forecast been accurate, but instead, because we have made progress on employment and other adjustments, we have been able to put money back this year. We have put money back into special needs. We have made provision in health and in many areas of pressing need. We have increased the budgets for the homeless by 22%. Certainly, it is not enough. The economy is a work in progress. I certainly will not rest still until we get back to full employment. We can deliver that by 2018 but it means we have to continue to deliver policies that will allow that sort of growth.

Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan is correct to say that we need to have broader measures of economic welfare than simply economic ones and that we need those wide indicators of sustainability, etc. That is part of the way in which we need to develop impact indicators. Many Departments are developing such impact indicators and, increasingly, they are working to indicators and publish them along with the Estimates so that people can see the impact of how the money is being spent on important measures of performance. I agree with the Deputy that we need to have those broader measures but that cannot deviate from the fact that had we not got 105,000 people back to work, we would not have €2 billion to put back to provide some relief for families for the impact of the past number of years.

See this speech in context