Shock for consumers and business. Low paid and elderly will be hit hard.

Fine Gael Communications & Energy Spokesperson, Leo Varadkar TD, today (Sunday) said a hike in electricity prices in October will horrify consumers and businesses and hit the low paid and the elderly particularly hard.  Deputy Varadkar has called on Minister Ryan to postpone the introduction of a €156 million levy, which will see household bills rise 5% and small businesses pay €100 more on annual bills, and instigate a full review of the levy used to subsidise peat and renewable energy generators.

“The news that electricity prices are due to rise from the first of October will come as shock to hard-pressed consumers and businesses.  The levy is particularly unfair to the low paid and elderly people as it is imposed as at flat rate on all domestic consumers regardless of how much energy they use.  A granny living on her own using very little electricity will pay the same amount as somebody who leaves their boiler on all day.

“Businesses will be horrified to see electricity prices going up again.  We already have the third highest electricity prices in the Eurozone and now they are set to rise further.  I think people will be particularly angry that the ESB will be the main beneficiary of levy and will get €85.5 million from it in a full year given that the company reported profits of over €500 million only last week.

“Responsibility for this price hike lies firmly with the Minister Eamon Ryan.  The Regulator’s only role is calculate the levy based on his policies.  Consumers and business are going to have to pay the bill for Eamon Ryan’s green energy revolution and his unwillingness to squeeze the ESB.

“I am calling on the Minister to introduce a statutory instrument to postpone the introduction of the levy, which will be imposed in October, pending a full review of the levy.”

Real figures show net loss of 9,000 jobs and lost opportunity to support 30,000 more

Fine Gael Communications & Energy Spokesman, Leo Varadkar TD, has described as ‘complete codology’ Government claims that the new capital programme announced yesterday would create 270,000 jobs.

“This year, the Government will spend €6.5 billion on capital projects supporting about 75,000 jobs mainly in the construction sector. According to the Revised Capital Investment Plan, €5.5 billion will be spent in 2011 supporting 66,000 jobs. That’s a net loss of 9,000 jobs.

“I have studied the Revised Capital Investment Plan in detail. The Government’s claim that it will create 270,000 jobs is based on the proposition that 12 jobs are created for every €1 million spent on infrastructure. That figure is valid. However, what they neglect to mention is that these are not additional jobs. These are jobs that will replace jobs lost on other capital projects that have been completed.

“The Government is trying to pass off a cut in the capital programme and a net loss of 9,000 jobs per annum as a boost for employment or some sort of ‘stimulus’ plan. This is ‘complete codology’.

“People working on the Dunboyne rail line this year will be working on the Metro or the Dublin inter-connector next year. People building new schools in one parish this year will be building a new school in another parish next and people who are working on the National Convention Centre now will be working on the new DIT campus next year. But overall there will be fewer of them.

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Fine Gael has offered to advise the Government’s Review Group on State Assets in order to help Fianna Fáil and the Greens to implement this carbon copy rip-off of Fine Gael’s NewERA plan, according to Deputy Leo Varadkar TD.

The Fine Gael Communications Spokesman said: ‘It’s a pity the Government did not act when Fine Gael published NewERA 15 months ago, instead of waiting until the live register had almost doubled’.

“When we publish a policy, it’s rubbished by the Government. Then months or years later they realise Fine Gael was right, and they bring it in as their own policy and try to take the credit.

“It happened this week with the Government’s Home Defence Bill, a cause Fine Gael has been championing for years.

“And the Government has also ripped off our policies on benchmarking, the PRSI holiday for new jobs, the windfall tax on power generators, culling useless State quangos and reining in wasteful State spending.

“It’s happening again with the Review Group on State Assets announced by the Government this week. This audit of State assets is strikingly similar to NewERA, Fine Gael’s plan to overhaul Ireland’s infrastructure.

“Fine Gael launched NewERA 15 months ago. Our plan would have created more than 100,000 jobs in the short and medium term. Many of those new jobs would now be in place if NewERA had been adopted as Government policy at the time.

“Obviously I welcome the fact that the Government is now implementing NewERA, even if they have given it a different name.

“That’s why Fine Gael is offering to advise the Review Group. Since this is Fine Gael policy in all but name, we think it’s only right that Fine Gael brings the Government up to speed.”

A new survey showing that Ireland’s broadband is the third most expensive in the OECD rubs salt into the wounds of Irish customers, who already have the worst broadband service in Europe.

The National Competitiveness Council’s new report confirms that Ireland has the third most expensive broadband out of 28 OECD countries, with prices more than double the OECD average.

“This report adds insult to injury to broadband users. Not only do we have the worst broadband in Europe, but we have to pay some of the highest fees.

“This is having a serious impact on Irish businesses, who need a fast and reliable broadband service in order to compete internationally and to drag Ireland out of recession. Irish schools are also suffering from the appalling broadband service.

“Meanwhile, the UK and other EU countries are moving on to the next level of broadband provision with new, superfast services.

“Fine Gael’s NewERA policy sets out how Ireland can kick-start work on a fast, reliable and cost-effective broadband network. Ireland cannot compete internationally with a broadband network which is stuck in the last century.

“Instead of having the third most expensive broadband in Europe, with the worst service, I want Ireland to be in the OECD top five for speed and cost-effectiveness. It’s a shame Fianna Fáil and the Greens just aren’t interested.”

This evening I will be addressing the Patrick MacGill Summer School session on the Banks, Nama and the Future of the Irish Economy. It is being broadcast online from 8:15pm on the Donegal County Council website, whic can be accessed here.

Other speakers include:

• Mark Fielding CEO, ISME
• Willie Slattery, Head of State Street Corp.
• Shay Cody, incoming Gen, Sec. IMPACT
• Chair: Angela Kerins, CEO Rehab

A Jobless Recovery is not a Real Recovery

Speaking in the Dáil on Fine Gael’s Private Members’ Motion on the economy this evening (Wednesday), Party Communications Spokesman, Leo Varadkar TD, said, that as seen in the 1980s, a jobless recovery is not a real recovery and that semi-State companies must be re-tooled into engines for economic growth.

Making his speech, Deputy Varadkar said:

“Cathaoirleach, I rise to speak in favour of the Fine Gael Motion tonight. First of all, please allow me to thank Deputy Noonan for his Motion and for allowing us to debate the economy before the Dáil rises for the summer recess.

“Last week, Ireland officially came out of recession recording positive GDP growth in the first quarter of 2010. However, this is merely a statistical recovery and a statistical recovery is no good to the Irish people. For real people, the recession will only be over when unemployment falls and incomes begin to rise again. This could be a long way off. Members of this House who were here during the last recession will recall that the recession of the 1980s ended in 1983. However, the public finances were not stabilised until 1987 and there were no jobs until the 1990s. I am concerned that history is repeating itself and that we are facing into a prolonged period of jobless, anaemic economic growth, a period of stagnation or another lost decade.
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Numbers signing on up 460 in June; Up 4,938 Since June 2007

According to the latest statistics from the CSO, there are now 8,565 people signing on the Live Register at the Blanchardstown Social Welfare Office. This represents an increase of 460 people over the past month. However, the starkness of this figure is all the worse when it is compared to the June 2007. Since then the numbers signing on has increased by 4,938 from 3,627– a staggering increase of 136%.

Local Dublin 15 TD and Fine Gael Spokesperson on Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Leo Varadkar TD said “These figures demonstrate how this national catastrophe is hitting home at the local level. Unfortunately, there is no action from the government to tackle the unemployment crisis.”

“The government can talk their way around all the statistics in the world and pretend things are on the mend, but the simple fact is that until the dole queues stop increasing, and being to fall dramatically, this recovery talk from is just nonsense. Each and every one of the 8,565 signing on in Dublin 15 would be able to tell you this.”

“The government would do well to remember the 1980s, when a recession ended in 1983, but the public finances were not stabilised until 1987, and there was no jobs growth until 1990. The Government is leading us into another lost decade of stagnation due to its failure to implement a jobs plan.

“Unlike the Government or any other political party, Fine Gael has a costed and comprehensive jobs plan. We have demanded no further cuts in capital spending or investment, and no further tax increases, which would only destroy a recovery.”

One person losing job every 2.5 minutes

Speaking after the live register rose to another record high, Fine Gael Enterprise Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD warned that Fianna Fáil and the Greens are leading Ireland into a lost decade of stagnation.

“Ireland is not working. Almost 15,000 people joined the live register in the last month. That means 3,750 people lost their job every week, or roughly one every two and a half minutes.

“I am amazed that no-one in Government has yet realised that a recovery without jobs is no recovery at all. In the real world, a recovery is about having a job to go to and enough money in your pocket.

“The Government has fallen into the trap of believing that a jobless recovery is good news for the economy. But a small increase in national output is no good to anyone if it doesn’t make any inroads into Ireland’s massive unemployment levels.

“Fianna Fáil and the Greens would do well to remember the 1980s, when a recession ended in 1983, but the public finances were not stabilised until 1987, and there was no jobs growth until 1990. The Government is leading us into another lost decade of stagnation due to its failure to implement a jobs plan.

“Unlike the Government or any other political party, Fine Gael has a costed and comprehensive jobs plan. We have demanded no further cuts in capital spending or investment, and no further tax increases, which would only destroy a recovery.”

Attacking Radical FG Jobs Plans No Substitute for Absence of Jobs Strategy from FF/Green Govt

The continued attacks from Government sources on Fine Gael’s radical NewERA jobs plan, while undoubtedly satisfying some of the political appetites within Fianna Fáil, is no substitute for the absence of a jobs plan from the Government which has resulted in almost 439,100 people being on the Live Register, according to Fine Gael’s Enterprise Spokesman, Leo Varadkar TD.

“The Government’s attacks on Fine Gael’s radical jobs plan would be laughable if their own non-existent jobs strategy wasn’t so damaging for the 439,100 people now signing on. While these attacks may distract some people from the Government’s own dismal failures, Fine Gael is determined to see our plans to overhaul our economy implemented as quickly as possible. The hundreds of people that have attended each of our NewERA meetings in Roscrea, Naas and Dundalk all recognise the new opportunities NewERA brings and want to see it become a reality.

“I understand why the Government doesn’t want to talk about its own jobs record but the hundreds of thousands of people whose lives they have destroyed deserve some hope and some sense of a Government with a vision for the future. Fine Gael has that vision for a modern, competitive and green economy.

“We know that major finance houses like Davy’s and NCB are looking to invest in projects like NewERA and the European Investment Bank has told us that these are exactly the types of investments that they are interested in. The Construction Industry Federation has run the rule over our jobs predictions and notable economic commentators like Eddie Hobbs and David McWilliams recognise the merit of our plans. Indeed, two key think-tanks have also endorsed the thinking that underlines NewERA. John FitzGerald of the ESRI has called for the creation of a single Irish water utility, while economic and social think-tank Tasc has endorsed the concept of using State-owned enterprise to borrow to build infrastructure to stimulate the economy.
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