Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

This is the final day of the summer session and I would like to respond to the allegations that have been continually made by Opposition Members about the Government's lack of interest in job creation. I attended the launch of a new business park initiative at Ireland West International Airport, Knock, County Mayo last Monday which was attended by other Oireachtas and council representatives. The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation made it clear that the entire focus of Government policy was on job creation. The Taoiseach is in America trying to attract jobs. The Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport hit the ground running when she took over her brief. More than 250,000 people are employed in the tourism industry and she has encouraged the businesses involved to maintain and increase the number of jobs. The Minister for Social Protection also hit the ground running and will launch an expansion of the social employment scheme during the summer. If Opposition Members want to make accusations - they are entitled to make political charges - it is important, as Senator Hanafin and others said, to indicate that the focus of the Government, now that there is financial and fiscal stability following its good efforts in the past 18 months, is exclusively on job creation. As a former emigrant, I bemoan the fact that the ESRI should run lurid headlines that 120,000 people will emigrate.