FG should examine New-Era flaws before criticising Government’s jobs strategy - Kelleher

Fine Gael should take a long hard look at the flaws in their New-Era plan before criticising the Government’s employment strategy, the Minister for Trade and Commerce, Billy Kelleher T.D., said today.

Responding to a statement by Richard Bruton in which he attacks the Government’s record on employment, Minister Kelleher said: “Fine Gael’s constant mud-slinging is typical of their ongoing campaign of negativity. They hope that that by criticising the Government, they will be able to distract attention from the reckless proposals contained in their New-Era plan.”

“In what can only be described as ‘bad economics’ FG has proposed raiding the National Pension Reserve Fund, increasing borrowing, selling state assets at a time when prices are depressed and creating four new quangos.”

“Contrary to claims by the Opposition, Fianna Fáil in Government remains committed to getting people back to work. Over the past eighteen months we have introduced a wide range of innovative measures aimed at creating and maintaining jobs. These include the Employment Subsidy Scheme, the Enterprise Stabilisation Fund and the Labour Activation Fund, among others. In addition, we are investing €40 billion over the next six years in labour intensive infrastructure, supporting 60, 000 jobs. At 5% of GNP, this is twice the European average."

"Meanwhile, Government state agencies, such as the IDA and Enterprise Ireland are doing sterling work in attracting investment in the country and supporting enterprise. Naturally, it suits Fine Gael’s agenda to simply ignore of all this.”

“It is becoming increasingly clear that Fine Gael is only interested in painting a bleak picture of the economy. Rather than welcoming the OECD’s statement yesterday that Ireland is close to a “turning point”, it chose instead to criticise the Government’s employment strategy. It’s time that Fine Gael realised that their obsession with talking down the economy will not get people back to work any faster.”