More pre-election pledges are abandoned as the new Government admits it can’t say how much will be invested in its much heralded stimulus plan New Era. Nor is the New Era Minister prepared to make any commitments on how many jobs it will create, according to Michael McGrath Fianna Fáil TD for Cork South Central.

Responding to a series of Dáil questions from Michael McGrath, Minister Fergus O’Dowd today admitted that the high profile jobs plan was effectively unfunded. Deputy McGrath commented, “When pressed on this three times, Minister O’Dowd reverted to well worn soundbites attacking Fianna Fáil, ignoring the fact that his Fine Gael party had full access to information on the country’s finances before the election and yet still chose to mislead the electorate with extravagant promises.

He continued: “This is a far cry from Fine Gael’s pre-election promise to create tens of thousands of jobs. It was not so long ago that Enda Kenny boasted ‘NewERA plan will create over 105,000 jobs’. While this figure was revised downwards during the election campaign it still stood at 80,000. The fact that Minister O’Dowd now refuses to make any commitments on the number of jobs to be created tells its own story. It appears that Minister O’Dowd’s colleague Michael Noonan was correct when he dismissed this key part of the ‘Five Point Plan’ as a ‘PR add-on’”

Deputy McGrath concluded: “This is just the latest in a long of line of pre-election promises which were abandoned the moment the votes were cast for Fine Gael and Labour. The approach of these parties has been cynical, manipulative and deeply depressing.”