andMr. Harte asked the Minister for Finance the target set for the provision of new jobs in the Second Programme for Economic Expansion; and the actual number of jobs that have been provided to date.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Provision of New Jobs.
50.
The Second Programme for Economic Expansion envisaged a net increase in total employment of 81,000 for the period 1964 to 1970 made up of increases of 60,000 and 57,000 respectively in industry and services and a decline of 36,000 in agriculture. There was no projection for the total number of new jobs. In the event there was a net increase of 24,000 jobs in industry between 1963 and 1968, a net increase of 25,000 in services and a decline of 50,000 in agriculture.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that there are 70,000 fewer people at work in Ireland today than there were in 1957? Is the Parliamentary Secretary further aware that, speaking in Drogheda in May, 1965, the Taoiseach promised that by the end of 1969 or early 1970 the Government would have created 80,000 new jobs? Will the Parliamentary Secretary now admit that that promise was only an election gimmick, and that the Government have fallen down in this respect?
I am aware that Deputy L'Estrange has a most extraordinary collection of statistics of which I do not profess to have intimate knowledge.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary not agree that the figure I have given—70,000 fewer people at work now as compared with 1957—was given to me last October by the Parliamentary Secretary in reply to a question which I asked? If the Taoiseach wants to deny the speech he made in Drogheda in 1965, he can. He promised 80,000 new jobs. The Second Programme has been a failure. There are now 70,000 fewer people at work instead of 80,000 new jobs. The Taoiseach is silent on the question of the number of people at work.