Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We disagree on many issues but there are issues we agree on. One of the issues we agree on is that the best economic policy and the best social policy is high levels of employment and full employment where that can be achieved. That is the best economic policy. It is also the best way to reduce poverty and to reduce disadvantage.

The best new deal for people who have lost their jobs is job creation. Something the new Government, and this Government for so long as it lasts, will have to do is to make sure that we create new jobs, whether through public investment the likes of which Deputy Eamon Ryan spoke about earlier, whether through private investment - we need to make sure that we continue to be a country that is a good place in which to do business - or whether through foreign direct investment, which creates good, well-paid, pensionable and secure jobs, and of which we need to make sure we as a country get more than our fair share in the years ahead. Job creation policies are essential.

What is essential as well is education and retraining opportunities because economies are always changing. This pandemic will cause economies, not only here but across the world, to change quickly and dramatically and we need to make sure that we quickly institute programmes to allow people to return to education to engage in training, particularly for those jobs that will exist in the future about which nobody knows for sure. One might call it astrology - one can only estimate to the best degree possible what the economy will look like in the future - but it is reasonable to say that there will be many more jobs in care, in the public service and, for example, in construction. There will probably be fewer jobs in retail and perhaps in transport and the entertainment sectors because of the way the economy will change, not only hear but across the world. We need to think about that and make sure that we prepare people and educate them and train them for those jobs of the future in the new environment, which will be a green, but also digital, recovery and which will have impacts on some jobs that basically cease to exist. It has been done previously. When the party that I lead came onto these benches in 2011, we had 15% unemployment and over 30% youth unemployment. As recently as 29 February of this year, we were very close to full employment. It can be done and we will do it again.

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