Sinn Féin's 10-point plan for job creation

Sinn Féin's John Brady, Kathryn Reilly, Mary Lou McDonald and Peadar Tóibín at the launch of the 10-Point Jobs Plan

SINN FÉIN has launched a €7billion, 10-point plan for job creation.

Dublin Central candidate and Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald said on Thursday that the priority for any incoming Government has to be job creation and retention:

The country is in crisis. Unemployment has reached record highs with 100,000 people set to emigrate over the next two years. These people want to work. They are enthusiastic, experienced and are ready and willing to work towards getting the country and the economy back on its feet.

Families across the country are seriously struggling to make ends meet and to cope with job losses.

Without a serious plan for job creation we are in danger of losing hundreds of thousands of people who will have little option but to leave these shores in search of work. They have been failed by the previous Government; they must not be failed by the next.

The absolute priority for any incoming government must be to implement a comprehensive job creation and retention plan which works and which will get people back to work or into training.

Sinn Féin is making job creation a priority. Last year we published our documents Getting Ireland Back to Work and No Job? No Future? No Way! the latter of which focussed particularly on job creation for young people under 25. The proposals contained in the documents are fully costed, credible and if implemented have the potential to create 160,000 jobs and many more training places.

Sinn Féin's 10-point plan lays out clearly how our policies and our proposals would make huge inroads into addressing the current unemployment crisis.

We are the only party proposing to invest in a jobs stimulus fund. While other parties argue over cuts we know that we cannot cut our way out of recession. The relationship between jobs and the deficit is a clear one – more people in work produce higher levels of spending activity and tax revenues, as well as lower bill for welfare payments.

Our stimulus is about providing immediate and direct employment in key sectors such as infrastructure in the immediate term. But in the longer term the impact of our stimulus plans would see the state’s competitiveness increase as we become a world leader in green energy, IT and research and development, in addition to having world class infrastructure to attract Foreign Direct Investment and support indigenous enterprise for longer term employment creation.

We have clearly shown that there is a way to create jobs. There is a way to get Ireland back to work. The employment crisis can be addressed if the political will is there. The people have a right to work, a right to earn a living and a right to provide for their families. In government Sinn Féin would make job creation our number one priority.