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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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.”

Live Register - January 1980 to May 2010

Speaking after the live register reached another dismal record high, Fine Gael Enterprise Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD said the Government’s lack of a jobs and stimulus package has never looked more damaging.

“This is the highest number of unemployed people ever in Irish history with 439,100 now signing on. Another 1,650 people joined the dole queues every week in May. It’s a truly appalling situation, with overall unemployment now at 13.7%.

“The Government has spent the last month lying about its employment strategy and spinning against the Opposition parties, instead of taking action to stem the jobs haemorrhage. It’s fair to say that the lack of any jobs strategy at Government level can be linked to this dismal surge in the live register.

“Fine Gael has proposed graduate internship programmes, second chance education and jobs-orientated changes to the social welfare code to keep young people at work or in education. And we have put together a constructive plan to take 40,000 people off the live register within 12 months, and create 105,000 new jobs over four years through Fine Gael’s new stimulus plan. The Government has refused to implement these recommendations.

“Even though the Government adopted Fine Gael’s proposal for a PRSI holiday for employers who take on extra staff, it has spent the last six months dithering over its introduction and still has yet to do so.

“This week Ernst & Young predicted that unemployment will remain at 10% for at last another five years. Even bleaker was its prediction that an entire generation will be blighted by high jobless levels.

“Ireland urgently needs a jobs and competitiveness strategy. Bailing out the banks is not an investment in the future. In the week that €2 billion was poured into Anglo Irish Bank, the Government’s failure to provide a stimulus package for growth looks incredible. We need to invest in the real economy in order to get people back to work. That will clearly never happen under Fianna Fáil and the Greens.”

Deputy Leo Varadkar has offered to brief Batt O’Keeffe on the various Government unemployment groups after the Enterprise Minister was lost for words on Morning Ireland.

“I know Minister O’Keeffe is still fresh in the job, but with 785 job losses announced at Pfizer and 430,000 people signing on, you would hope he would be familiar with the Government’s own groups on unemployment.

“So I was surprised to hear Minister O’Keeffe lost for words when challenged on the status of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Renewal, and the High Level Group on Labour Market Issues.

“His response was: ‘I’m not certain, there’s no point in my saying that I know it exists’.

“In the sprit of co-operation, I am happy to brief Minister O‘Keeffe on the status of both groups. The Cabinet Committee still exists, but the High Level Taskforce has been mothballed, in spite of Ireland’s soaring unemployment rate.

“If the Minister would like to call me I will be happy to further clarify this matter for him.”

Fine Gael Enterprise, Trade & Employment Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD has described the loss of 785 high-value jobs at Pfizer as ‘a meltdown in the multinational sector’.

“This is a terrible day for Ireland and its multinational sector. Ireland is taking a much bigger hit than other countries, with three of the eight sites that are being ‘exited’ located in this country. Some 785 of the 6,000 jobs being lost are based in Ireland.

“Pfizer is also shedding jobs in the US, UK, Germany and Puerto Rico. However France, Sweden, Spain and Australia are not affected.

“The scale of the lay-offs in Ireland alone should send a clear signal to Government that it cannot afford to ignore Fine Gael’s warnings about Ireland’s lack of competitiveness any longer.

“Fine Gael is calling on the Government to immediately adopt our plans for a National Competitiveness Action Plan to improve infrastructure and reduce the cost of doing business, which would include the following elements:

 

• A reduction in all Government and local authority charges of roughly 5%;

 

• A reduction of Government regulated prices like telecoms and energy;

 

• A PRSI waiver for new jobs;

 

• The implementation of Fine Gael’s NewERA plan to improve energy and telecoms infrastructure across the State;

 

• No further reduction in the capital budget; and the

 

• Introduction of emergency measures to save jobs and retrain the unemployed such as work-sharing, internships and second chance education.

 

“The No.1 priority of the next Fine Gael government will be jobs. We will stem the tide of job losses and restore Ireland to full employment.”

“This is a Fianna Fáil recession, caused by reckless and irresponsible Fianna Fáil politicians who ignored all warning and all opposition as they inflated away our competitiveness, squandered our surplus and allowed the banks to run amok. Fianna Fáil is to blame for all of that and we must never let them forget it.”

“Today, in my constituency of Dublin West, there are men who get up early every morning, put on their suit and pretend to go to work. They spend their redundancy money because they do not know how to explain to their children that they can no longer afford to give them the childhood that they had planned.”

“Ireland does not need a new Cabinet. Ireland needs a new government, with a five year term, a solid majority and a mandate for change. We need a new team in charge. Fine Gael is that team.”

 

• NewERA: transform semi-State companies, use the proceeds from privatisations and money from the national pension fund to leverage billions of euros of private investment into broadband, water and energy. This will create tens of thousands of jobs and improve competitiveness.

 

• Jobs Plan: set up internships for unemployed graduates, encourage employers to take on redundant apprentices and provide second chance education for those who left school early.

 

• Workshare: use the €20 billion welfare budget to persuade businesses to retain staff. This would subsidise the difference between salaries and training grants for staff placed on short-time.

 

• Where employees are put on a three day week or week-on/week-off arrangement, the Government will ensure they maintain 75% of original income up to the average wage. This could be higher where a collective agreement is in place and the employer is willing to pay more.

 

• Banking: Telling the banks that taxpayers’ money will not be used to pay for their mistakes. Troubled banks will be split into good and bad units, with the good banks sold off to recover monies already paid over by taxpayers.

 

• Budget policy: Bring the deficit under control, while rejecting any notion that Ireland can tax its way back to a balanced Budget.

 

• Competitiveness: We are drafting a National Competitiveness Action Plan to drive down business costs and make Ireland competitive again.Job creation is FG’s No. 1 priority

 

Commenting on the latest live register figures, Fine Gael Enterprise, Trade & Employment Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD said: ‘These figures show that unemployment is continuing to rise and now stands at 13.4%, the second highest in the Eurozone. This has trebled since the Fianna Fáil Government was re-elected’.

“The most worrying feature of today’s figures is evidence that more and more people are moving from short-term jobseekers’ benefit to long-term jobseekers’ allowance, as their stamps run out. Overall, the live register has lengthened by 600 but the numbers on jobseekers’ allowance have increased by more than 4,000, to 257,586.

“Put simply, 88,000 people have moved from the short-term unemployment category into long-term unemployment. The social consequences of long-term unemployment are as serious as the economic ones currently paralysing the country. It leads to a loss of hope, destroys communities and causes poverty.

“Yesterday the Government bailed out the banks to the tune of €40 billion. But there has been no bail-out for the unemployed. Indeed, the Government couldn’t even come up with €1 billion to help retain and create jobs, as proposed by Fine Gael.
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FÁS now split between three Departments

No Department for Employment or Jobs

Fine Gael Enterprise, Trade and Employment Spokesperson Leo Varadkar TD, who is speaking in the Dáil debate on the reshuffle this afternoon, has accused the Government of forgetting about jobs and described the reshuffle as a ‘botch job’.

“Cowen has abolished the Department of Employment. No Government Department now has employment or jobs in its title when the country is facing the worst unemployment crisis in a generation. He could have combined all employment functions including benefits paid to adults of working age to a new department of employment and benefits.

“This reshuffle is a total botch job. Responsibility for FÁS has been divided among three Departments – Enterprise, Trade & Innovation, Social Protection and Education & Skills. The troubled agency will be overseen by three Ministers who will inevitably pass the buck from one to the other.

“Instead of public sector reform, we have a Junior Minister across three Departments, combining it with his existing responsibilities as Minister of State for Labour Affairs. Alongside this we have a Cabinet committee and a new quango – a Public Service Board. What a joke.”

Fine Gael Enterprise Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD has called on the Tánaiste to tell Aer Lingus management that she will not hand over €10 million in taxpayers’ money to subsidise bogus redundancies at the airline.

Earlier this week the airline announced it would lay off a thousand members of cabin crew and hire 750 on inferior terms and conditions. Cabin crew will be paid two weeks per year of service in statutory redundancy, 60% of which the company intends to have refunded from the social insurance fund. Cabin crew with less than two years service will get nothing.

“These are not real redundancies. If the company wants to buy out the terms and conditions of staff it should be done by agreement and the company should use its own resources.

“Taxpayers should not be landed with the bill. This type of bogus redundancy scam has been going on for too long. This is the last straw. The Tánaiste should immediately inform Aer Lingus that on this occasion she will not pay, and that the law will be tightened accordingly.
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With 90,000 under-25s on the live register and a third of all young men unemployed, Fine Gael Enterprise Spokesman Leo Varadkar TD said the Dáil will tonight debate Fine Gael’s Eight Point Plan to end the ‘Young People’s Recession’.

Fine Gael’s plan will tackle unemployment and help young people to get into work, education and training. The debate will be held during Fine Gael’s Private Members’ time, and tomorrow night the Government parties will have a chance to vote on the Eight Point Plan.

Speaking before the debate Deputy Varadkar said: ‘Almost everyone has suffered in this recession, but it is primarily a young person’s recession’.

“Young people have borne the brunt of the unemployment crisis with almost 90,000 people under the age of 25 on the live register and a third of young men on the dole. Young people are most likely to have to emigrate. Those in employment are more likely to be on temporary contracts and be mired in debt and negative equity.

“If the Government does not act soon we risk losing a whole generation to debt and despair.

“Fine Gael has the youngest parliamentary party in the Dáil. We can identify with the problems facing young people. That’s why we using our Dáil time this week to promote our Eight Point Plan to get people back into employment, education and training with particular emphasis on youth unemployment.
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