Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the expected level of jobs that will be created by the end of 2012 and 2013 respectively as a result of the stimulus plan announced in July 2012; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43505/12]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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On 17 July the Government announced its plans for an additional €2.25 billion investment in public infrastructure projects. The most important contribution capital investment can now make is in providing the capacity for the economy to grow which will, in turn, create employment. The stimulus package included €1.4 billion to fund the proposed new public private partnerships, PPP, programme. This investment is directed towards projects that meet key infrastructural needs and are in line with the priorities in the Government's investment framework. These projects will form the first phase of a new programme of PPPs designed to stimulate economic growth and create employment. As the phase 1 projects are progressed and as funding permits, projects that could be delivered as part of further phases will be considered.

Job creation is a critical priority for the Government. This stimulus will help to sustain jobs in the construction sector which has been very badly hit. The investment in the phase 1 package is expected to generate significant numbers of jobs. Previous analysis of each sector indicates that the investment will generate around 13,000 direct jobs and many more indirect jobs. It will also create much needed social and economic infrastructure and aid economic recovery. Projects have also been chosen on the basis that they are spread across the country and will provide employment in many local areas. When deciding which projects to invest in, the labour intensity of all projects was carefully considered.

My Department chairs a steering committee which is closely engaged with the relevant line Departments and their agencies to ensure all of the projects identified are advanced. Work is being finalised on a timetable of projects to determine when projects can be rolled out. I expect that a number of tenders will issue next year. An important feature of the PPP programme roll-out is that jobs will be created and sustained at all stages from project preparation, design and construction. Activity has commenced and I understand a number of tender competitions are under way, including those for legal advisory services and technical advisory services for the Grangegorman project, the schools programme and the justice programme.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

The HSE will also be issuing tender notification for technical advisors for the primary care centres shortly. This should help to provide certainty and sustain employment in these sectors. There will be considerably more activity next year as project preparation continues.

The steering committee is also looking at ways to maximise job creation as part of each tender competition in line with procurement regulations. With the NDFA, the committee is also examining ways to encourage SME participation by facilitating access to the programme. The NDFA is working with Enterprise Ireland to organise awareness raising events across the country.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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My question specifically asked how many jobs would be created by the end of 2012 and 2013, respectively, but the Minister did not give an answer. Therefore, I can only assume the answer is zero.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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That would be wrong.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister said that after six or seven years some 13,000 might be involved in the programme. He cut capital expenditure this year by €750 million and will cut it by €550 million next year. This amounts to almost half of the value of the stimulus package. Therefore, it does not even go half way towards meeting the cuts announced for this year and proposed for next year. Therefore, it is only a minor abatement of the cuts in capital expenditure. The Minister is now talking about drawing up a timetable, tenders being issued in 2013 and, possibly, planning applications going through for some of the infrastructural projects proposed.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Does the Deputy have a question?

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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How much work on these projects will physically start in 2013? I take it that nothing will happen this year. Perhaps the Minister can tell us how many people will be employed specifically as a result of this initiative in 2013.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Sometimes I reel at the brass neck of Fianna Fáil. Why are we reducing the capital programme? Why are we reducing expenditure at all? We are doing it because Fianna Fáil ruined us. Under the programme that the previous Government set before we came into office, a deficit of 2.9% had to be reached by 2014. As a result of our negotiations with the troika, that has been pushed back to 2015. The level of cuts and expenditure would have been much deeper, of necessity, if Fianna Fáil had stayed in office. Taxes would be much higher, of necessity, than those we have negotiated. That is the reality we have faced. As I have said, this Government's economic strategy has three strands. First, we must work towards a balanced budget. We are doing that incrementally and with great difficulty. It will be done by 2015, with the forbearance of the Irish people. Second, we need a stimulus to go with the balancing of budgets because it is not enough. That is true not only in the Irish context but also in the European context. We have worked might and main in our discussions with the European Investment Bank and other investors to put together an investment package with significant job creation potential, involving 13,000 jobs in its first phase. We are driving to have many of those tenders up and running next year. Some of the planning is happening right now. Some employment will happen before the end of this year, for example in the pre-planning and preparation for the Grangegorman project. Third, we need to deal with the banking debt. Along with my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Noonan, I am working might and main to deal with that legacy of the promissory note the previous Government left us.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister introduced party politics into this. He will get his answer back from me.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I saw the Deputy doing politics when he was grandstanding yesterday.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister was not there.

Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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Is the Deputy going to stay in his chair this time?

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I would love him to look-----

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Is the Deputy going to walk out again?

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister feels that he is in a position to comment even though he was not there.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I remind Deputies that this is Question Time.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I am responding to the Minister's response. The Government is producing its second budget. It might not have dawned on the Minister that the public has realised that he and his colleagues are in government. I do not hear President Hollande of France blaming Nicolas Sarkozy for his difficult choices.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Deputy must not be reading his speeches.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I do not believe David Cameron goes around-----

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Deputy is not reading his speeches.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister thinks the solution to the Government's problems is to continue to pass the buck to those who were in government in previous years, but the people of Ireland have moved on from the past.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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I doubt it.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Deputy wishes that were the case.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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They are more interested in the present and the future.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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They have not forgotten the damage done by the Deputy's party.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister knows that if the Government is not happy with the programme it inherited, it is free to renegotiate elements of it each quarter. It has the ability to do that and it has done it in certain cases. The Minister cannot hitch it onto the old Government. This Government has the flexibility to renegotiate any aspect of the programme that it does not like. The Minister and his colleagues have been in government for two years at this stage. The Government is approaching its second budget. It can continue to blame history as long as it likes. Believe it or not, people are more interested in the jobs they are looking for and the budget that is coming up than in going on about what happened in previous years. I ask the Minister not to continue this cover-up job when he is making his remarks in future. I asked how many jobs will be created in 2012. I want an answer. I know the answer is "zero". How many jobs will be created in 2013? The Minister has failed to answer that question here today. I want to hear the answer, if there is one.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The people changed the Government last year. Unfortunately, they could not change the economy. We are fixing the broken economy that was left to us by the previous Government. We will fix it in our five-year term. I know the Deputy and his colleagues will not be of any help. Last year, we received their pre-budget submission the day before the budget, which was a most helpful input into the analysis of what should be done. The stimulus package we have published was hard-fought and hard-won when we negotiated it. It is being funded by the sale of State assets. According to the agreement that the Deputy's party agreed with the troika, every shilling from the sale of State assets would have to be used to pay down debt. We have-----

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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There is no figure in the agreement for the sale of State assets.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Walk out again. Go on.

Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Labour)
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Run out again.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister has made an inaccurate statement. There is no figure in the memorandum of understanding for the sale of State assets.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Deputy shouts people down and walks out because he cannot take it.

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister should not try to rewrite history.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I ask the Deputy to resume his seat. The Minister has the floor.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The problem with the Deputy is that he wants to declare year zero, as Pol Pot did, so that everything that happened before his party left office, having wrecked the economy, will be forgotten. That is not going to happen. We are setting out the record as it is. We are working incrementally to fix things. I have set out the three strands of the economic policy we will deliver. The first phase of the stimulus programme which is part of that policy will create 13,000 jobs. We are still negotiating other elements of it. We will address strategic infrastructure and meet the requirements of the programme for Government by rolling out a different health strategy for this country, meeting the demographic demand in education, providing the Grangegorman facilities and doing all the other things that were set out in the first phase of our stimulus plan.