FG ignores Government job initiatives – Fitzpatrick

The Fine Gael Party is once again choosing to ignore the many initiatives introduced by the Government to tackle unemployment according to Fianna Fáil TD for Kildare North and Convenor of the Oireachtas Enterprise Committee, Micheal Fitzpatick.

Responding to Deputy Leo Varadkar’s claim that the Government lacks a jobs strategy, Deputy Fitzpatrick said:

"The Government has introduced an array of measures aimed at getting people back to work. Cleary, it suits the agenda of the Fine Gael Party to simply ignore these initiatives."

"While unemployment remains high the Live Register figures released today confirm that the situation is stabilising. The Seasonally Adjusted Live Register figure for February is 432,400, which is a monthly decrease of 2,300 from January."

"In Budget 2010, the Government announced a number of stimulus measures aimed at supporting and creating employment. These included:

a capital investment of €6.4billion, with priority in labour intensive projects to support over 60,000 jobs. This investment represents no less than 5% of GNP, twice the European average.

a new national energy retrofit programme which will create up to 5,000 jobs in 2010."

"Budget 2010 also contained a €136 million support package for the unemployed. As a result of this, the Government has the capacity to provide training and supports to 180, 000 individuals in 2010."

"The Government has also introduced a number of innovative labour initiatives such as the Enterprise Stabilisation Fund and the Employment Subsidy Fund. The two schemes combined provide supports worth over €250 million to vulnerable but viable firms. The Employment Subsidy scheme is expected to support up to 80,000 jobs while the Employment Subsidy Fund has already supported approximately 7, 500 jobs."

"This week saw not one but two state agencies announce impressive targets for job creation and the actions needed to achieve them. Yesterday the IDA and the Tánaiste launched a blueprint for creating over 100, 000 jobs through foreign direct investment. In addition to this, the national employment agency, FÁS, set out its strategy for job creation for the coming years. It seems, however, that Fine Gael is determined to ignore all of this preferring instead to continue with its usual negative narrative," concluded Deputy Fitzpatrick.