Niall Ó Brolcháin (Green Party)

I welcome the Minister and thank the Leader for arranging this extremely important debate in such an expeditious manner. I was surprised by the rhetoric of the previous speaker as I wanted to have a debate on job creation rather than unemployment statistics.

The Labour Party has been the subject of considerable criticism recently for failing to produce policies. This criticism has not been levelled at the Fine Gael Party to the same extent. It appears from the previous speaker's contribution that the Labour Party's plan to create new jobs is to re-inflate the building boom by investing in infrastructure and creating a new bank. I am startled by this proposal, which would not create any sustainable jobs and would be retrograde in terms of the direction of the economy.

I was taken, however, by Senator Mary White's contribution in which she spoke of a high quality food island. This is a genuine suggestion. I worked in the dairy industry for many years and the Senator is correct that Ireland produces a large quantity of food ingredients. Many food companies and co-operatives are based here.