Jobs & Growth Key Issues in Election 2011

15 Feb 2011

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has set out an alternative strategy for economic recovery and said jobs and growth were the key issues in General Election 2011.

Speaking at the launch of A Better, Fairer Way to Recovery Congress General Secretary David Begg said that attempts to meet the 3% deficit target by 2014 were "economically self-defeating and almost certain to thwart a return to growth."

Mr Begg branded the austerity programme of the outgoing Government as a "total failure that had caused enormous economic damage and cost us thousands of jobs."

He said that a continuation of the same austerity policies by a new Government would have the same disastrous results.

"Four austerity budgets have sucked €20.6 billion out of the economy. And the result? More people out of work, a higher deficit and the country forced into the arms of the IMF. Where is the evidence that more of the same would lead to a different outcome?"

Mr Begg said any new Government would have to make jobs a priority and find a way to "lift the debt of private banks off the back of taxpayers."

He said that we needed to create space in which growth could take hold, by extending the timeframe for fixing the public finances to 2017.

Mr Begg also warned that a "clearance sale of state assets to pay off bank debt would mean surrendering our capacity to restart the economy. We need to start seeing state companies as potential agents of recovery," he said.

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