Vol. 406 No. 3
1 Mr. Noonan (Limerick East) asked the Taoiseach if he has assigned responsibility for job creation to a specific Minister or Ministers; the name of the Ministers with this responsibility; if he has a procedure in place to measure the effectiveness of his Government's job creation policy; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Each member of the Government is responsible for job creation in the sectors for which he/she has departmental responsibility, e.g. the Minister for Industry and Commerce for manufacturing and international services, the Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications for tourism, transport and communications, the Minister for the Environment for construction, the Minister for the Marine for the marine, the Minister for Energy for forestry, and the Minister for Agriculture and Food for agriculture, food and horticulture.
The Central Review Committee, established in December 1987 by the Government and the social partners under the Programme for National Recovery, and continued under the new Programme for Economic and Social Progress, to review and monitor the progress in implementing the programme and in particular the achievement of its targets and objectives, monitors progress in job creation areas on an going basis. The committee published a progress report on job creation in December 1988, and a further progress report, which included job creation, in February 1990. Section V of the Programme for Economic and Social Progress outlined the progress achieved in relation to job creation under the Programme for National Recovery and set out targets and objectives to be achieved under the new programme. Paragraph 4 of section X of the Programme for Economic and Social Progress provides that the Central Review Committee mechanism will continue to operate to monitor the achievement of the targets and objectives including those for job creation of the new programme.
(Limerick East): It is clear that what is everybody's job in Government is nobody's job. I should like to ask the Taoiseach if he is aware that the live register at present stands at 244,000 persons and that this is 16,000 higher than was estimated by his Minister for Finance when he introduced the budget six weeks ago? Will he also agree that the Programme for Economic and Social Progress is really a programme for unemployment as it, in effect, provides for no new jobs either in the next three years or in its underlying strategy over the next ten years?
I do not agree, first, with the last point. The programme does provide for the creation of 20,000 jobs a year. On the basis of the success of the Programme for National Recovery which produced about 21,000 jobs a year we can be confident that that target will be reached under the new programme. Second, with regard to the overall level of the unemployment figures at present it is quite clear that the recent increase in the total live register is due primarily to two factors: that emigration has declined very considerably and, in addition, a very large number of emigrants have returned. Of course, the present situation contrasts quite favourably with the situation when the Deputy in question left office as a Minister——
Rubbish.
——when in the winter of 1987 there were 250,000 unemployed.
(Limerick East): Is the Taoiseach not aware that his Government now say that there are 275,000 people unemployed when we allow for those on training courses, some of which are spurious? Will he also agree that the Government are now not only not solving the unemployment problem but that Government policy is actually causing a loss of jobs by removing incentives and creating poverty traps? Will he further agree that his Government have neither a national policy, a sectoral policy or a taxation policy which will do anything about the unemployment problem?
I have to dissuade Deputies from imparting information rather than seeking it. This is Question Time.
Those statements are so wide of the mark as to be patently absurd. The Programme for Economic and Social Progress just published is probably the most comprehensive set of policies for all economic and social areas of this country that has ever been published.
(Limerick East): A comprehensive set of promises.
It is manifestly absurd to suggest that the Government have not got policies; we have policies, good sound policies which are working in all these areas.
(Limerick East): Is the Taoiseach aware that his predecessor, Mr. Jack Lynch when he was Taoiseach in the late seventies, said that a Government which presided over a live register——
We are having quotations: this is quite improper at Question Time.
(Limerick East): It is not a quotation, it is a passing reference.
I am afraid so Deputy.
(Limerick East): Mr. Lynch said that a Government who presided over a live register in excess of 100,000 did not deserve to be re-elected. I would like to hear the Taoiseach's views on that now that he has exceeded that figure by a factor of 275.
It was true in the Deputy's case anyway.
The Minister left when it got tough.
I want to repeat that, difficult and unsatisfactory though it is — nobody on this side of the House tries to conceal the fact that it is unsatisfactory — we have high unemployment and all our efforts are directed to reducing it. It is ludicrous for Deputy Noonan to be complaining about the level of unemployment. As I said, when his Government left office unemployment was at the quarter of a million mark and rising.
(Limerick East): This Government have been in office for four years and it is 275,000 and rising.
This Government have halted the rise in unemployment.
We have specific policies agreed with the social partners to provide employment which is the only way to reduce the unemployment figures.
Order. I think the House will agree that the Chair may not remain unduly long on any one question. We have had a series of supplementary questions on this question; we have remained on it for nearly ten minutes. A brief and final question from Deputy Jim Mitchell.
Would the Taoiseach not agree that given that in the four years since he took up office 129,000 people have emigrated, that there are 244,000 on the live register and that nobody over 55 years is now on the live register, in reality, the unemployment figure is almost 385,000? Would he not also agree that (a) there is a need for a Minister for Employment and (b) the Government are spending a lot of money causing unemployment?
No, I could not agree with that last statement for the simple reason that it is not true.
It is true.
As I have already pointed out in reply to Deputy Noonan, the Government have agreed with the social partners, employers and farmers, a constructive, far-reaching programme of economic progress.
That is all wishful thinking.
A positive programme of economic development which will create employment and investment is the only way to tackle unemployment.
Deputy Bruton for a final question.
Would the Taoiseach agree that one significant difference between the Programme for National Recovery, which is just finished, and the Programme for Economic and Social Progress, which the Government have recently published, is that the former document contains specific targets for job creation in individual sectors, whereas the present document has abandoned any targets for job creation in any individual sector? Would the Taoiseach further agree that it would make good sense to establish a ministerial task force of all the Ministers responsible for employment particularly with a view to making a concerted attack on the poverty traps in social welfare and taxation which do not make it worthwhile for people to increase their income or work harder under the present system?
I must repeat that this Government——
Are a failure.
Under the first programme put in place by this Government, 70,000 extra new jobs were provided in the private sector——
Those figures do not stand up.
That is a false claim.
(Limerick East): They were created in Manchester, Boston, New York and London. That is where the jobs are.
What about the 126,000 people who have emigated over the past four years?
I think I had better call the next question.
If I am not allowed to answer, a Cheann Comhairle, I will not try to do so.
Question No. 2.
A Cheann Comhairle——
Question No. 2 has been called and will be responded to.
On a point of order——
On a point of order.
——I should like to ask a very brief supplementary.
Sorry, Deputy, that is not a point of order. Next question——
Unemployment is rising and this House should be given time to pursue the matter with the Taoiseach——
If Deputy Shatter wishes to debate this matter he will have to find another time.
I want to raise a legitimate supplementary question.
It may not be debated now. Question No. 2.
It is not job creation but job cremation.
