John Gerard Hanafin (Fianna Fail)

I support the call by Senator Callely for a rolling debate on the economy. I am especially mindful of the fact that the United Kingdom experienced low growth in the last quarter of 2009. This followed growth in the economies of Germany, France and the United States. The reports on the world economy for 2010 project increased growth rates from 3.1% to 3.9%. In other words, the world economy is coming out of recession. Having dealt with the issues that confronted us last year, namely, the budgetary position, NAMA and ensuring we had a stable banking system, the House could well turn its attention to the major difficulty of providing jobs in this growing economy. Looking towards the future, there are many fine ideas expressed in this House. I have heard such positive suggestions made previously about the use of finance to project our exports abroad and to provide for jobs-based growth. I ask the Leader to seriously consider arranging a rolling debate on job creation during this term.