Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is always welcome to have a debate on employment, JobPath or anything that will get people back to work and give them an opportunity in this life. Members of Sinn Féin come in here and talk about their political ideology, but I take offence. I come from a working class community. I served my time as an apprentice and I served in a trade union. Sinn Féin Members in this House pontificate as if they are representing the working people. They are not. They are trading on division - political division and even class division.

I am proud to be a member of a party that stepped up when this country and its economy were on the rocks. Unemployment was over 17% and in my region of Waterford and the south east it was over 20%. Rather than complain, point the figure and pontificate, as Sinn Féin does, the Fine Gael Party gets down to finding solutions. JobPath was one of the solutions. We were laughed at in 2011 when the Action Plan for Jobs was announced. We said we would create over 100,000 jobs. Sinn Féin and the Opposition laughed at us but we proved to be right, through dedicated Ministers and dedicated people throughout our public service. SOLAS training centres and education and training boards, ETBs, redirected people who were unemployed into retraining. Using systems such as JobPath we have driven unemployment down. We have worked to recover our economy. There is still work to be done but I will not take lectures from Sinn Féin on unemployment or how to run an economy.

Sinn Féin criticises the Fine Gael-led Government in this part of the island, but in Northern Ireland it pays unemployment benefit of £75 which equates to approximately €80. That is the measly sum paid in Northern Ireland where Sinn Féin is supposedly trying to form a government.