Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have pleasure in seconding the motion. As my colleague, Senator Naughton, mentioned, 330,000 jobs were lost during the previous Government's tenure. As the motion mentioned, unemployment peaked at 15.1%. Since the Action Plan for Jobs, unemployment has been on a steady downward trend. Jobs are being created throughout the length and breadth of the country. We were all worried about the boom being confined to Dublin, Cork and, possibly, Galway, and not filtering around to the rest of the country. As Tip O'Neill said, "All politics is local". I can see the strong growth in employment in my native city, which was hit harder than most in the country. Since the collapse of TalkTalk, Glanbia has opened a wonderful facility in Waterford port, creating jobs. In the past few weeks Sun Life has announced jobs and NearForm has created 100 jobs in Tramore. Another 100 jobs were created last week in Portlaw and Genzyme is advertising for more employees. This morning, there was a wonderful announcement by Bausch and Lomb regarding 125 extra jobs and 150 construction jobs.