Government cutbacks say little to 54,000 who have lost jobs over last year

Posted on July 09, 2008 at 07:58 AM

Following the Government's announcement yesterday to make cutbacks of €440million the Labour Leader Eamon Gilmore TD has said the Government's plans are not a plan for the economy rather more of a back of the envelope book-keeping exercise.

He said that while there were some prudent measures included some of which have been sought by the Labour Party including the dropping of the Ministerial pay increases much of it appears to be full of headline grabbers "which appear to be designed more to restore political confidence in the Government than to restore confidence in the economy".

He added: "The astonishing thing about this is that it says little or nothing to the 54,000 people who lost their jobs over the last year."

You can see an extract of the debate on the accompanying video clip and read the full transcript on the Oireachtas website.

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