Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail)

On the subject of universities, Waterford should be careful about what it wishes for because changing the name of Waterford Institute of Technology to Waterford University could become a joke. As the Minister outlined, the city would be better off working with what it has and trying to improve it. I would, therefore, be careful in that regard.

The Government's jobs initiative has one serious flaw and it is the issue that concerns me with regard to any plan to sell off State assets. The flaw is its lack of a business plan to show how the initiative will work, including the number of jobs to be created in each sector and how it will be transformative. I will support any initiative to create jobs. Several years ago I privately advocated to the former Minister for Finance, the late Brian Lenihan, the sale of the national lottery to generate funding to build schools. This is an excellent suggestion as there is no reason the State should run a lottery. However, one cannot start selling off State assets and then start pumping out grants and funding in the hope jobs will be created. One needs a detailed business plan indicating what sectors should receive money and setting out the reasons for providing funding. This is not the case with the jobs initiative. For example, the VAT reduction in certain sectors has not been passed on in all cases. Moreover, pensioners who used to work in Tara Mines in my county protested outside the Houses yesterday about a 10% cut in their payments. The initiative has not produced any benefits in terms of jobs. I hope there will be benefits, but it lacks a business plan setting out in detail how the initiative will work.