Labour Party TD Willie Penrose has said this week’s Budget is bereft of hope for people who have lost their jobs. “With well over 400,000 people in Ireland looking for work, surely the number one priority for this budget should have been job creation? We had every right to expect that the budget would put forward some concrete proposals to get people off the dole queues and into jobs, but instead we got nothing.”
Deputy Penrose feels there is nothing in the Budget to encourage small businesses to create jobs, “There is no jobs stimulus and in short there is little hope on offer,” he said.
“Competitiveness has reduced to a low-wage strategy focused on a cut in the national minimum wage. The strategy for investment is an announcement about the pension reserve fund being prepared to finance PPPs, and the enterprise strategy is about more tax breaks.”
Deputy Penrose believes the Labour Party has a series of plans that they feel will genuinely create jobs. According to the Mullingar based politician the Government needs to:
Establish a strategic investment bank that would take €2b drawn from the National Pension Reserve Fund to provide for investment in innovative start-ups and small businesses and for strategic investment in public infrastructure;
Establish a Jobs Fund to finance a series of pro-jobs initiatives that involve elements of current expenditure. The fund would be administered by a cabinet sub-committee. Proposals from departments, agencies, and other bodies, including the private sector, would be considered on the basis of their contribution to an overall jobs strategy and would be funded accordingly.
Abolish upward-only rent reviews, particularly for the retail sector
Introduce an SME Working Capital Guarantee Scheme to ensure that viable small and family businesses can get the credit they need
Allow the unemployed to claim tax back for full time study
Create a meaningful internship programme.
“Throughout the crisis, Labour has been clear that cuts alone will not solve the problem. Ireland needs a strategy for jobs and growth, and the lack of action on jobs has made the crisis in the public finances and in the banks even worse. While difficult decisions are needed, we also need a strategy to grow our way out of our predicament,” he added.
