Vol. 386 No. 1
asked the Taoiseach if he will outline the basis for his statement made to Dáil Éireann on 16 December 1988 that the job creation targets of the Programme for National Recovery would continue to be met; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
2.
asked the Taoiseach the number of occasions on which the Central Review Committee of the Programme for National Recovery have met since October 1988; if he will outline the main topics discussed at the meetings and any decisions reached; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 2 together.
The basis for my statement in this House on 16 December last that the job creation targets of the Programme for National Recovery will continue to be met was information on jobs actually created in 1988, on project approvals for 1989 and 1990 and on the pattern of job recoveries supplied by the State agencies and Government Departments responsible. It is the same evidence as was available to the Central Review Committee of the programme in their end-year review of progress on job creation on the basis of which the committee accepted that the programme's job creation targets would be met in 1989 and 1990 as they were in 1988.
The Central Review Committee of the Programme for National Recovery have met on three occasions since October last. Two of those meetings on 26 October and on 30 November 1988, dealt with the committee's review of progress on job creation. The committee published their report on progress in job creation under the programme on 10 December 1988, and copies of that report were made available to the Oireachtas Library.
At their meeting on 11 January 1989, the committee discussed the basic elements of the national development plan being prepared for submission to the European Commission as the framework for Structural Funds financing in 1989 to 1993. The committee agreed the basic elements, including the specific programmes, to be covered in the plan as was made clear in the statement issued after the meeting.
Would the Taoiseach confirm the basis for his statement that the 20,000 target in the Programme for National Recovery includes a figure of 5,000 jobs in tourism and can he tell the House in what way these 5,000 jobs have been identified, whether this is simply an estimate of 5,000 jobs or whether there is actual evidence that these jobs exist?
As the Deputy knows, nobody is in a better position to decide whether these jobs were in fact created than the trade unions and they were quite satisfied with the figures put before them.
I did not ask the Taoiseach if the trade unions were satisfied with the figures. I was asking the Taoiseach if he could indicate what evidence there is that these jobs exist. Does the Taoiseach regard the reaching of the target of 20,000 as an adequate response to unemployment in view also of the massive redundancies that took place in 1988?
The Deputy should be careful there because redundancies notified are not always reached in practice. The figure of 20,000 is our commitment. The Programme for National Recovery always adverted to the creation of jobs so the target in that regard was reached. Of course, with 240,000 people unemployed no figure really is adequate but there was a satisfactory reaching of the target set in the programme.
We can only assume that the target is met if there is evidence that these jobs exist on the ground. May I ask the Taoiseach again what evidence there is to suggest that these 5,000 jobs in tourism specifically exist?
The Deputy is engaging in repetition.
If the Taoiseach would answer the question I would not have to repeat it.
That is not in order.
The main source of that figures is Bord Fáilte who do an actual survey but we also have our own system of monitoring these figures; also that figure is generally agreed by all those in the industry who are responsible for the statistics concerned.
Is the Taoiseach not aware that it is pointed out in the latest report that some of those jobs that are supposed to have been created on the tourism side are put in on the basis of a rule of thumb as to how many jobs there are in the retail sector for a given amount of expenditure or employment in tourism? Is the Taoiseach not aware that those are estimates, guesses, and for them to be true we would have to assume that there was no spare capacity at all in any of these retail sectors and to that extent these jobs are only fiction?
I do not agree. These estimates are based on surveys, on investigations and calculations carried out by reputable agencies, organisations and economists.
They are not being accounted for.
I am quite satisfied that if there was any doubt about them the Central Review Committee would have said something.
