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

Again, Deputy Murphy seeks to distort the reality. The truth is the jobs being created are quality jobs. In the past two years all of the jobs have been full time. There has been a reduction in part-time work, in particular involuntary part-time work has dropped by 23%. Unemployed people have been major beneficiaries of this progress and the number of people on the live register has decreased by 111,000 over the past three years. The number of long-term unemployed has dropped by 60%. With regard to the prevalence of schemes, 9,500 extra people are on schemes overall, but 92% of all employment growth has nothing whatever to do with schemes. These jobs are in quality sectors such as manufacturing, ICT, financial services, business services and engineering, and they are all supported by IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland. They are in good sectors with a sustainable future. We also see a recovery in employment in construction, another sector with good pay rates and good conditions. The Deputy seeks to distort reality just to fit his own view of the world.

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