Byrne rejects FG’s criticisms of Government’s jobs strategy

Fianna Fáil TD for Meath East Thomas Byrne has today totally rejected Fine Gael’s unfounded criticisms of the Government’s employment strategy.

Deputy Byrne was responding to a speech made by Enda Kenny in Dundalk last night in which he accused the Government of not putting job creation at the top of its agenda.

“It is clear from Deputy Kenny’s ill-informed comments last night that he is more interested in scoring cheap political points than engaging with the Government in any kind of constructive manner.”

“For Fine Gael to completely dismiss all of the labour measures introduced by the Government over the past eighteen months shows the extent to which they have been caught up in their own negativity. It is extremely disingenuous of Deputy Kenny and his party colleagues to simply ignore schemes such as the Enterprise Stabilisation Fund, the Employment Subsidy Scheme and the car scrappage scheme, which have helped to safeguard thousands of jobs.”

“Fine Gael last night accused the Government of turning its back on the unemployed in favour of the banks. Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is that without a properly functioning banking system, there can be no jobs. To claim otherwise is simply to mislead the public’.

“Deputy Kenny also accused the Government of not investing enough in infrastructure. In fact this year alone we are investing almost €7billion in labour intensive projects, providing up to 70, 000 jobs. At 5% of GNP, this is twice the European average.”

“In his speech, Enda Kenny also highlighted the challenges facing companies in accessing credit. What he failed to mention, however, was that the Minister for Enterprise Trade and Innovation Batt O’Keeffe met with representatives of all of the major banks to ensure they fulfil their obligations to lend to small businesses under the bank recapitalisation plan. Only last week AIB announced that it is to make €500 million available to viable, small businesses as part of its new ‘Business Recovery Scheme’.”

“Fine Gael is in no position to criticise the Government’s employment strategy, given their own flawed proposals in this area. According to their New-Era document, they would be happy to raid the pension reserve fund, increase the cost of borrowing, set up four new quangos and sell off state assets at depressed prices. Furthermore, the author of this strategy, Deputy Simon Coveney, last week suggested raising taxes to fund these measures and casting regions adrift in favour of attracting investment to Cork and Dublin.”

“Contrary to claims by Fine Gael, the purpose of the Government’s entire economic strategy is to sustain and generate jobs. While there are no overnight solutions, we should be encouraged by the fact that the labour market is now beginning to show signs of stabilisation,” concluded Deputy Byrne.